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Mitzi Stoddard, harm reduction coordinator, holds up this card that reads, âWhen given access to naloxone, people who use drugs save more people from fatal overdoses than police or paramedics.â
EAST LIVERPOOL Two overdose deaths last weekend rocked the city’s core. A city effort believes that a little education could have save those lives.
City police responded at 8:11 p.m. Feb. 20 to the 600 block of Oak Street to a report of two deceased people. Both were overdose victims, authorities said.
Mitzi Stoddard, who is a harm reduction coordinator with River Valley Organizing, said the tragedy could have been avoided. The organization, which also has a location in Portsmouth, carries not only naloxone in both the injectable and the nasal form to reverse overdoses in opiate addicts but also strips that addicts can use to test their drugs for the presence of fentanyl.