Overdose calls are rising, but some police in Indiana and Texas have been banned from giving a 'life-saving' drug

• Overdose deaths have risen in many states, from Texas to Pennsylvania.
• But some police stations are prohibiting their officers from using naloxone to reverse overdoses as part of broader measures to limit person-to-person contact.
• The inventor of Narcan, the brand name version of the drug, says it can be administered from an arms-length distance.
• Experts warn people with substance use disorder are in a much more precarious situation during the pandemic and support is needed.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

During a pandemic, opioid overdoses don't stop — but in police stations in Texas and Indiana, naloxone use does.

One Indiana police department suspended use of the lifesaving medication on March 19. In April, a Texas police department refused to accept a donation of the medication that would have equipped every single officer in the department.

Before COVID-19, 130 Americans a day were dying due to overdoses naloxone could have prevented. The drug, which reverses the effects of an opioid overdose, is carried by law enforcement officers and first responders across the US.

But during the pandemic, some police chiefs are refusing to accept or administer the drug as they restrict the amount of physical contact their officers should have with other people, since the coronavirus is spread by person-to-person contact.

Overdose calls have risen in recent weeks

There has been an uptick in emergency overdose calls in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, New York, and Texas in recent weeks.

However, Austin police chief Brian Manley refused a donation of 1,800 units of Narcan, the brand name version of naloxone, donated by The Texas Overdose Naloxone Initiative. David Hofmann, chief of the Lawrence, Indiana, police department, suspended the administration of naloxone. He directed his officers to stay six feet away from the unconscious person and wait for medical personnel to show up.

The moves have been met with considerable backlash.

The Indiana Department of Homeland Security said naloxone should still be used. Narcan inventor, Dr. Roger Crystal, condemned Hofmann's choices, telling Filter magazine that there are safe ways to administer Narcan, by wearing PPE, facing away from the person who overdosed, and remaining at an arms-length distance while administering the drug.

Before the pandemic, US opioid deaths had been on the decline, and many experts credit naloxone

Prior to the pandemic reaching US soil, opioid deaths have been on a slow decline, with the rate of deaths decreasing by 5% from 2017 to 2018.

Many experts have attributed this drop to the emphasis placed on naloxone access on both the local and state level.

Attitudes towards naloxone were still unfriendly in some places, with one Indiana county stating in February this year that using naloxone to reverse a drug overdose could warrant a police investigation. However, other states, like Pennsylvania, had begun supplying naloxone to area airports.

"Usually when someone overdoses on opioids, they cease to breathe," Dr. Brett Wolfson-Stofko, researcher at New York University's Center for Drug Use and HIV Research, told Business Insider. "By administering naloxone it reverses that effect that the person can then breathe again."

There are no side effects to giving naloxone to someone who does not need it, and people can be trained in naloxone administration in as little as five minutes.

Most states offer naloxone over-the-counter, and at least 46 states have Good Samaritan laws so that people can administer naloxone without being liable for potential harm to the person.

Experts are concerned that COVID-19 will lead to a spike in overdose deaths

Despite the efforts to combat the opioid epidemic over the last five years, drug overdoses have still been persistent in the US.

Wolfson-Stofko points to a study he led in 2017, surveying 86 New York City businesses about drug use in their bathrooms. More than half said they had encountered drug use in their toilets, and 34% of managers reported finding syringes.

Now, experts are sounding the alarm about how the COVID-19 pandemic could push more people to substance use disorder, just as they have fewer ways to seek face-to-face support.

"We are gravely concerned that COVID-19 will increase already catastrophic opioid overdose rates," two doctors wrote in an April editorial in medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine, calling for a focus on relaxed federal requirements around accessing treatment.

In another April study, three experts said the three million Americans with opioid use disorder are more at-risk now than ever.

"We need to consider the role that social isolation coupled with non-stop reporting on the pandemic may have on the feelings of desperation and hopelessness among those struggling with substance abuse," US attorney James Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. "Amidst the current crisis, we need to remember that substance abuse existed long before COVID-19, and it will likely remain long after we have wiped out the virus."