Columbia Fire Department says they’ve administered Narcan 4 times since January

The Columbia Fire Department says they’ve administered Narcan four times since they started carrying the drug in January.

Narcan, also known as Naloxone, is a medication that can rapidly revive people who have overdosed.

“We can think of at least three instances in just basically less than four months, where this drug has made an immediate improvement and very likely saved the lives of patients,” Tim Bach, battalion chief with the Columbia Fire Department, told ABC 17 News.

Unlike other drugs, Bach said there are no negative side effects to using Narcan.

“The good thing about Narcan is that really there’s no contra-indications. What that means is that, there’s not a lot of situations where giving Narcan to someone will hurt them,” he said.

“There’s really no negative aspects for us to administer it to a patient. There’s just positive things,” he added. “And if it is an opioid overdose, it can reverse the affects really quickly.”

From 2008 to 2014, the number of heroin-involved deaths in Missouri nearly tripled, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

In March, the City of Columbia passed it’s own prescription drug monitoring program, but Bach said it will take time to see the effects.

“I think it’s going to take time-everything’s really new with the legislation, with us using Narcan, so really we haven’t had a good time period to look at the stats,” he said. “So, what we want to see-whether it’s legislation, education or anything-we want to see this improve. We want to see less need for us to go out and use this drug.”

ABC 17 News will have a full report in our 6 p.m. newscast.