In his monthly report to the Lloyd Town Board, Police Chief James Janso mentioned that in October there was one non-fatal drug overdose and one administration of Narcan. He invited two members of Ulster County’s ORACLE team to the meeting, Substance Use Disorder Care Manager Jessica Merck and Deputy Damon Alberts, of the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office, to discus their efforts to save those caught up in the throws of addiction. The acronym ORACLE stands for Opioid Response as County Law Enforcement.

Chief Janso said, “We have an epidemic of drugs and Narcan is one of the tools that we use. We put them in our police cars, in the town hall, in schools and in the town’s municipal lot and we want to do a little more.”

Deputy Alberts said they have placed a Narcan box, which contains about 30 kits, in Lloyd and 25 other locations throughout Ulster County. He said the religious Bruderhoff community built a number of the boxes for them and three more will soon be placed in Phoenicia, Saugerties and at the depot at the head of the Lloyd Rail Trail.

Jessica Merck said rail trails are good locations for the Narcan boxes because they are heavily traveled and she can retrieve and review data from overdose reports.

“Narcan is an opioid reversal drug and is not just for your junkie behind the dumpster, as that stigma is going away, but a large percentage of overdoses happen with the over 65 population who are prescribed pain medications. The idea of the ORACLE program is to get Narcan in as many people’s hands as possible. I think to date we’ve turned over about a thousand [kits] in just the first 10 Narcan boxes that we put up and 500 of that was from three of them.”

Merck said Narcan is safe for anyone, “it can’t do anything to them, it can’t hurt them, it doesn’t increase blood pressure or heart rate and it’s safe for infants and children.” She pointed out that anybody who uses Narcan or assists someone who is overdosing is covered by the Good Samaritan Law, “so there’s no liability, accountability and they can’t be charged or held responsible in any way, so it’s really safe on both aspects.”

Deputy Alberts tracks all of the overdose reports in Ulster County, “and I order anywhere from 1,200 to 2,400 kits at a time, five or six times a year.” He said whenever Chief Janso calls for more kits he immediately brings them to the town.

“The Chief gets what he needs and any other departments get what they need, fire ambulance and police departments, all for free. We are kind of the One-Stop Shop when it comes to that and we do Narcan and CPR training and provide information on treatment and resources,” Alberts said.

Merck said each kit contains an ORACLE pamphlet, their hot line number, instructions on how to use Narcan, Fentanyl, and Xylazine test strips, a pair of gloves as well as a list of resources for someone who is struggling with substances issues.

“Our job is not only Narcan, but my primary job is coordinating any type of treatment for anybody who is struggling with substances. We take community referrals and try to connect people with services,” she said.

Councilman Mike Guerriero asked how do you tell if someone is overdosing. Merck said some of the tell-tail signs, “is bluing of the lips, ashy color in the face, nail beds will start to turn blue, there may be some foaming at the mouth, very labored breathing if there is any breathing and if you were able to open the person’s eyes their pupils are going to be very, very pinpointed,” she said.

Merck said when Narcan is administered, “it rips the opioid off of that receptor and replaces it so the drug can’t get back to it and reverses the overdose. The object of Narcan is to restore breathing not consciousness, so it gets oxygen back to the body.”

Juanita Hotchkiss, Director of Community and Incarcerated Service Services for the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office, said in 2023 there were 45 overdose deaths in the county but in 2024 this dropped to 26 overdose fatalities. In 2023 there were 444 non-fatal overdoes and in 2024 the number declined to 303. Hotchkiss noted that not all of these occurrences were opioid related, since they also track cocaine, fentanyl and heroin incidents.

On a hopeful note, Hotchkiss said in 2023, out of 753 non-fatal incidents, 394 individuals entered into treatment programs and remained there from 30 days to 120 days, with 56% later maintaining a connection with ORACLE.