Four guest speakers, who all respond to emergency calls about overdoses, visited our Solutions Journalism: Covering Addiction class to discuss their experiences on Tuesday. Chas Carlson, Joe Sobol and Craig Hall are all paramedics, and Eric Miller is a law enforcement officer who works in Delaware County.

The four discussed topics like the demand for naloxone and the risks of responding to opioid overdoses.

Hall said the media portrays Narcan as a “media solution” without addressing some of its lingering issues, like how infeasible it is to use the medication’s small dosage when reviving a person who used an extremely powerful substance like fentanyl.

Synthetic opioids like fentanyl can enter a person’s system via skin, so first responders are subject to overdoses while administering naloxone or searching an area, the group said. Sobol and Carlson said there are doses of the medication in their vehicle that is only to be used if either of them begin to overdose while on call.