GALVESTON COUNTY HAS THE SECOND HIGHEST NUMBER OF DRUG OVERDOSE DEATHS IN THE STATE

Second store in Galveston County enters fights against opioid overdoses

 

By Sarah Grunau

 

Galveston County Daily News

February 24, 2023

 

 

HITCHCOCK -- A man on a mission to end opioid overdoses in the county plans to install a free Narcan dispenser Monday to make the life-saving medication more easily accessible.

Les McColgin, 71, a fentanyl awareness advocate, will install the new Narcan dispenser at One Stop Hardware, 8101 Wallace Ave. in Hitchcock. It will will be the second Narcan dispenser to ever be installed in the county of 355,000 residents. The first was installed in January at Hart Pharmacy, 202 state Highway 3 in La Marque.

The Narcan dispenser, which will hold 48 two-dose boxes of Narcan, is available to anyone interested in obtaining the life-saving drug, McColgin said

Narcan, a brand name for Naloxone, is a medication that can revive people who’ve overdosed on opioids like fentanyl, heroin and prescription opioid medications when it’s administered in time, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We know there is a major problem in the country not only with fentanyl, but all opioids,” Matt Vonderheide, store manager said. “Anything that helps people or kids is so worth it for us.”

Vonderheide welcomes the dispenser at the store, he said.

But others have balked after they learned the need to publicize the dispensers.

“The point of installing the Narcan dispensers is to get the word out to the community about free Narcan, and the chances of them being unsuccessful is more likely if people aren’t aware of the locations of the dispensers,” McColgin said.

McColgin, a recovering opioid addict, has battled his addiction for most of his life and has made it his mission to spread awareness about the deadly risks of fentanyl, he said.

He installed the first Narcan dispensing machine in Hart Pharmacy in January. Since then, dozens of people have availed themselves to Narcan at the pharmacy, store manager John Hart said.

“We have had quite a few individuals that come in to get a pack of Narcan that want to have it in case of emergencies,” he said.

One person picked up Narcan at the store used it to save the life of his friend who was overdosing on opioids, he said.

“We are not promoting it a lot now, because we are down to about 12 boxes,” Hart said.

Galveston County had the second highest number of drug overdose deaths in the state of Texas in 2020, roughly 200 per 100,000, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Orange County, which is just east of Beaumont and has a population of just 86,155, had the highest rate at 315 deaths per 100,000 in 2020, according to the department.

Kathryn Cunningham, director of the University of Texas Medical Branch’s Center for Addiction Research, said Galveston County and Texas are in a fentanyl crisis and there’s no clear evidence the problem is improving.