Church hands out opioid reversal drug at family festival

WOWK 13 NEWS ^ | June 14, 2017 | WOWK

[Morgana]

CINCINNATI (AP) - Some people have questioned an Ohio church's decision to hand out the opioid reversal drug naloxone at a family festival.

WLWT-TV reports (http://bit.ly/2rWbiue ) Holy Family Catholic Church in Cincinnati's East Price Hill neighborhood partnered with the Ohio attorney general's office to distribute nearly 70 overdose kits last weekend.

Parish operations manager Jeremy Bouer said providing the kits was the right thing to do because people need to be equipped to save lives when someone overdoses.

[Morgana]

whenifhow -— ohio ping

salvation, chode, nyer guess it’s too much to pass our Rosaries?

[cherry]

stupidity at its finest...

this is NOT the church of my youth....

instead of working against the drug culture, they are trying to make it safer, which can never ever happen...

[Whenifhow]

OHIO PING!!!

Article and comments

Thanks, Morgana

[FES0844]

They should have passed out Bibles.

[grania]

It's been heartbreaking. The decision has been made to train emergency personnel and train them to use these opioid reversal drugs. What's happened? It's gotten even worse. It seems drug addicts are practicing riskier behavior now that there's a drug to reverse an overdose.

It eats your heart out when someone who could've been saved dies. But it's not that simple. Enabling bad behavior only leads to even worse bad behavior.

What's the answer? I'm getting all religious and philosophical and scared. Perhaps the only answer for mankind is a collapse of civilization, with what emerges afterward more self-reliant and responsible....until it spins out of control for yet another cycle.

[cyclotic]

I don’t think it’s a great idea, but I can see their reasons.

I live in Maryland, which is at the center of the Opiod/Fentanyl spike. My county has had over 40 fatalities this year alone.

I also lead a Boys outdoor troop with Trail life USA. We are un-apologetically Christian. In the past, I led two different Boy Scout Troops which we led with a strong Christian character. A boy who was with our troop from age 6 to 15 OD’d two years ago.

That hit me like a ton of bricks and I told the boys in our Trail Life Troop I’m not willing to do that again.

So, on Monday, a friend of mine who is a former junkie and has been involved with addiction ministries since he got clean 30 years ago is going to lay it out straight with the boys.

Narcan can be a wonderful antidote, but it can also allow or even encourage users to use with impunity.

On the other hand, I wouldn’t mind keeping one in my car. A local Sheriff Deputy almost died two weeks ago when he got a little Fentanyl powder airborne during an Overdose call. Narcan saved his life.

[utahagen]

While I agree 100% that Rosaries should have been passed out as well, my objection to passing out these opioid reversal kits is more that they were passed out in the presence of children than that the Church was involved in distributing them. This opioid crisis is so desperate that no one seems to know what to do about it. These drugs are so cheap and so addictive that the number of people hooked in rural, semi-rural, and suburban areas is outstripping resources at every level. Parents are passing out at little league games, in the aisles at convenience stores, and in SUVs. When the parents are arrested or go into rehab, the children are sent to live with relatives, many of whom also have drug problems, or placed in foster care. The government can't afford to care for all these children and the children themselves are suffering. Yes, I would like to see the Catholic Church, which is my church, offer genuine — meaning, spiritual — hope and salvation. However, I would expect people to go oncologists when the have cancer. Considering all the government money that goes to, say, Catholic Charities, I can't say I mind reading about some practical good the Church is spending money on. These kits are saving peoples’ lives. When people die of opioid overdoses, they often leave two, three, or even six small children behind. Who will care for those children? After all, Catholic orphanages have gone the way of the Dodo Bird.

Heck, I'd rather see my local Catholic Church handing out opioid kits than condoms. (Again, the Church also should hand out Rosaries. They need not be mutually exclusive.)

[lastchance]

Saving human lives is certainly the work of the Church. It is likely too that the church lets people who ask for help with a drug problem what area services are available. They may even offer counseling service themselves. They probably also see far too often the absolute heartbreak caused by a person dying from an O.D. So if passing out the kits means more families will not lose a daughter, son, husband, wife, mom, dad, sister, brother, cousin or other loved one, I support what this church did.

[lastchance]

It has not gotten worse because emergency personnel have Narcan and such on hand. It has gotten worse because heroin is more readily available and it is now often laced with other substances that increase the risk of someone overdosing.

[cherry]

its against my philosophical bent to hand out condoms, abortion pills, narcan, needles and syringes for shooting up...

they may all have practical purposes, but I'm against them....

I think as society goes into negativity...as in, something bad IS going to happen...we actually become a worse society...

as opposed to a positive society...as in, we can be a big, purposeful, moral and intelligent society...yes we can!

[Chode]

pretty much

[xzins]

I don’t see anything immoral on saving overdose victims. I seriously doubt the users were the ones taking the kits. I’m assuming they were concerned family, friends, neighbors.

Does it encourage OD? I doubt it, because OD is too easily a death sentence.

[Ransomed]

The cartels put that stuff in because supposedly once you use it, regular unlaced heroin doesn’t cut it for that person anymore. You have to go to back to that specific source for it. It also allows them to have smaller poppy fields and harvesters which means less exposure.

I don’t know what the solution is. But for sure the cartels have to be happy that narcan is being handed out for free to their customers that overdose, it ensures at least some repeat business until they get used to the stronger stuff.

Freegards

[Ransomed]

A good wacky conspiracy theory would be the cartels actually funding narcan-like anti-overdose drug development behind the scenes as they introduce stronger and stronger opioids into the heroin supply.

Freegards

[xzins]

I doubt the cartels suddenly started to care

[Ransomed]

If you are going to introduce laced heroin that you know is going to really addict users to your specific product so they can’t go to someone else, but will unfortunately kill them at a higher rate when they are first starting to use it, why wouldn’t you want narcan for them? You want them to keep buying, dead people can’t buy your product.

Freegards

[utahagen]

“its against my philosophical bent to hand out condoms, abortion pills, narcan, needles and syringes for shooting up...”

It would be objectively morally impermissible under all circumstances for the Church to hand out condoms, while it would not necessarily be morally objectionable under all circumstances for the Church to hand out syringes. (I'm NOT advocating that the Church hand out syringes, by the way!)

[ViLaLuz]

How is this even legal? Narcan can only be possessed and administered by someone who’s been trained to use it.