Bexar County's new opioid task force has received a $3 million federal grant to make the overdose prevention drug 'Narcan' widely available to reverse overdoses, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
County Judge Nelson Wolff says just in time."It will save lives of they administer it," he said. "It will give time for EMS to get the patient to the hospital, so it's a life saver."
Wolff says while Appalachia and the industrial Midwest has been hit the hardest by the opioid crisis, overdoses are becoming more of a problem in San Antonio.
"Its starting to hit here, we are getting ahead of the curve with our task force," he said. "This is a very deadly drug."
San Antonio leads the state in infant oipiod withdrawal and has the third highest per capital rate of overdose deaths in the state.
"We just don't want to have it in the hands of law enforcement," he said. "It can be school based or wherever it might be. This is getting a lot worse."
The task force is also looking into encouraging physicians to take part in a drug monitoring database to alert them to potential abuse, training health care providers on evidence-based prescribing and dispensing protocols, and to educate the community on how to safely dispose of prescribed opioids.