Public health officials say a new California law aimed at preventing drug overdoses could have a big impact in the North State.
The law, signed earlier this month by Governor Gavin Newsom, requires workers who receive CPR training to also be trained to administer a medication that can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose. It’s called naloxone and is commonly known by the brand name Narcan.
Dr. Jarett Beaudoin, Butte County’s public health officer, said the expanded training could save lives.
“The more people who are trained with naloxone, the more likely it is that one of those people, when they encounter someone who's overdosed, knows how to use that Narcan,” Beaudoin said.
Beaudoin said the law could make an especially big difference in Butte County, where overdose rates are above the state average.
“The most recent data I have was 2024, and we had 55 people in Butte County die of an overdose, and that's actually a lot for our size,” he said. “Potentially, those people could have been saved by naloxone.”
There’s evidence the medication is already helping reduce overdose deaths. Beaudoin said overdose deaths have declined in California and nationwide in the last three years.
A lot of that, he said, has to do with the use of Narcan.
