Pilot Opiate Treatment Program Proposed for Wilmington, N.C.

March 22--RALEIGH -- A heroin addict overdoses and is revived. A heroin addict overdoses and is revived. A heroin addict overdoses and is revived.

Repeat again and again and again.

A bill sponsored by N.C. Rep. Ted Davis, R-New Hanover, and championed by local law enforcement would establish a pilot program in Wilmington that officials hope will break that cycle and lead to more people in treatment shaking their habit.

The idea behind House Bill 342, Davis said, is to establish a "quick-response team" (QRT) that will respond to overdoses with other emergency response officials.

"We're trying to get legislation on the statewide level to deal with the opiate problem and the city of Wilmington locally to start a pilot program to deal with the problem at a local level," Davis said.

After a patient is revived, the team would get addicts into treatment and recovery groups, provide follow-up care with licensed counselors and provide support to overdose victims and their families, according to the bill. It provides funding of $250,000 each of the next two years to staff the QRT.

Wilmington Police Chief Ralph Evangelous said he hopes the program is one step to prevent cases like Jonathan Alexander Hayes, who is accused of being high on heroin when he drove his pickup into another car last year, killing a 2-year-old boy. Authorities determined that that accident was the fourth time in six months Hayes had been revived with the overdose-reversal drug Narcan.

"We bring these people back on a pretty regular basis," Evangelous said. "It's the same scenario over and over again."

Evangelous said he was heading home on Market Street the day Barry Spencer, 31, allegedly hit four cars before ending up in a ditch. The chief said he called 911 and approached the truck with his gun drawn, unsure of what was happening, before realizing Spencer was overdosing.

"They hit him with Naloxone," Evangelous said. "He comes back, throws up and says he's OK."

While Spencer and Hayes were taken to jail cells, many overdose victims are not taken into custody -- something Evangelous said he hopes the pilot program could start addressing. Most addicts, he said, shouldn't end up in the criminal justice system, but should get treatment to beat their addiction.

"Right now, we empower them to abuse," Evangelous said. "We don't have the intervention piece in place to get these people some help."

The chief said addicts usually can't take care of their addiction without intervention.

"These people, for the most part, are not going to seek treatment themselves. They are a danger to themselves and they are a danger to the public," Evangelous said. "We need someone on the scene (of an overdose) who can involuntarily commit them ... to get them on the path to treatment and recovery."

Local co-sponsors of the bill are Reps. Holly Grange, R-New Hanover, and Deb Butler, D-New Hanover. The bill, which passed its first reading in the House, has been referred to the Committee on State and Local Government.

Reporter Tim Buckland can be reached at 910-343-2217 or Tim.Buckland@StarNewsOnline.com.

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