May 22, 2016 3 min read

As time goes on, heroin’s deadly grip seems to be becoming more and more intense.

So much so, apparently, that the opioid antidote naloxone will now be stored in Greene County jail should an inmate somehow overdose while incarcerated and need the life-saving drug to reverse an opioid’s deadly effects in an emergency.

The county’s prison board voted unanimously Thursday to spend $150 to purchase the two doses of nasal spray form of naloxone and will keep it stocked in the jail’s medical ward. The staff will be trained how to properly use it and jail Warden Harry Gillispie is preparing to outline a procedure and policy.

The decision comes despite the fact Gillispie said no inmate has ever overdosed while being held at the jail during his 30 years as warden.

A medical consultant hired by the prison board recommended in April that the jail stock the drug in the event an incoming inmate had swallowed a large quantity of heroin or another opioid just before being arrested.

The jail staff has never before dealt with such an issue, Gillispie told the board.

Greene County District Attorney Marjorie Fox had reservations about the decision and thought it was solution in search of a problem.

“If we haven’t had an incident, what’s the reason for having it?” Fox said during the meeting.

That put her at odds with Greene County President Judge Farley Toothman, also a member of the prison board, who pushed hard for naloxone to be stored at the jail.

“It’s an opportunity to save a life,” Toothman said.

There’s no doubt that naloxone saves lives. It’s highly effective and works nearly immediately to reverse an overdose, bringing an addict back from the brink of death.

But what its advocates fail to discuss is that the antidote does not change the trajectory of a heroin addict’s life.

Naloxone will give an addict another opportunity to make changes in his or her life, but it alone won’t make a difference without treatment or counseling to lure an addict away from heroin’s deadly spell.

And now we’re storing it in our county jails. Other jails in York, Montgomery, Chester and Lackawanna counties also store the drug. It appears likely that more across the commonwealth will follow suit.

While the prison board should be applauded for its proactive approach, it’s a sad commentary on what has become of our society that there appears to be a need to stock naloxone in our government buildings, police cars and now prisons.

Naloxone is the last line of defense to save an addict, but there needs to be more of a focus on the root of the problem by stopping addiction before it begins.

That’s the only way we as a society will be able to truly save lives and end this awful scourge.