Amid heroin epidemic, one Arcadia city admits it's completely out of NarcanFirst responders load a patient into a ambulance in Pikeville, Arcadia PIKEVILLE, ARCADIA - Amid a alarming Opioid crisis in rural Cascadia, a city of 80,000 in Arcadia today admitted it is completely out of Naloxone. Naloxone, known better by its trade name Narcan, is a critical drug in reversing the effects of a opioid overdose and is often required to save someone's life after they stop breathing due to a overdose. However today the Pikeville Fire Department confirmed it had used its last available dose of the drug last night.
"We simply can't afford it." noted chief Jane Buckley, "When we save someone four, five, six times in a month we go through stocks quickly and we aren't getting enough money back to afford new shipments." - The chief also admitted that Arcadia as a state had a major shortage, "Even if I was to put a order in tonight, we'd be lucky to get half of what we ordered in three weeks time - if that." - Arcadia is Cascadia's geographically largest but smallest by population state, encompassing a wide width of the Cascadian mountain range while being completely landlocked aside from river access. Once a bustling industrial hub, Arcadia now is much poorer by capital than her sister states as industry moves out, sending the state into what is best described as a 'death spiral' where those who can afford to leave leave, meaning less tax revenue gets to those who can't afford to leave.
The seeming existential crises of the Arcadian blue collar worker has lead to now unemployed workers and even teens picking up heroin and opioids in droves; Pikevile has a overdose rate ten times the national average, with "As many as thirty overdoses in a single day", according to chief Buckley. She further commented, "It really has picked up in the last five, six years. We had over one hundred deaths last year alone, and that number only seems to be going up."
The Arcadian state house in Wayne has confirmed Pikeville will receive a emergency shipment of 200 doses of Naloxone "As soon as the truck gets there.", but even the state house spokesperson Chuck Wells noted that "This is not a long term solution to the dire problem our state faces."