New Mexico's Harm Reduction Program educates users on substance abuse and helps to keep them alive, Joshua Swatek, manager of the program, recently told lawmakers, KOB reported.
“People are having to use more fentanyl more frequently, that’s also building tolerance faster," Swatek said. "So that's what we’re facing right now."
An increasing number of people who need help are children, said Emily Jaramillo, deputy chief of emergency services with the Albuquerque Fire Department.
“We gave Narcan 68 times to children under the age of one," she said. "So that’s pretty alarming to us that young, young children are getting into their parents, or their caregiver’s fentanyl."
The partnership of the Harm Reduction Program and the Department of Health is working to target that group and other substance users to provide education, resources and even drug supplies.
The program has begin handing out fentanyl test strips so users will know what they are taking. The program has handed out more than 50,000 test strips and more than 21,000 doses of naloxone to that high risk group since May. According to the participants, it's helping save lives.
“Potentially 3,421 times that our program participants saved a life," Swatek said. "That’s a great number but we know it’s an undercount."
He added that there’s even more work to do to meet even more people where they’re at, in hopes of getting them the help they need. Other supplies for safer smoking will soon be provided by the state with the goal of pulling even more people in to help educate and provide resources, and if wanted, treatment options.