Police and health workers saved more than 50 lives with the anti-overdose drug Naloxone in just six months — a small number compared to the yearly death toll of prescription overdoses in Utah.
Between Jan. 1 and June 30, the state Department of Health awarded 17 agencies, including police and health departments, about $236,000 to buy and hand out Naloxone kits, as well as train individuals how to use them.
And during that six-month period, more than 3,000 kits were purchased and nearly 2,000 were distributed, according to the Health Department. That, in turn, led to 46 situations where an opioid overdose was reversed by the drug.