TAMPA, Fla. — This year marks five years since Laura Sehres lost her son, Scott.
“I miss — I miss the sound of his voice. I miss those big bear hugs he would give me,” Sehres said through tears. “I miss everything.”
Scott, just 24 years old at the time of his death, suffered a drug overdose in Dec. 2018. According to Sehres, Scott’s shift at work was cut, triggering an emotional spiral.
“He went looking for Percocet, but unable to find it, he dialed the number to a drug house in South Tampa that he knew,” Sehres said.
Scott died there after taking heroin. The person who gave it to him waited three and a half hours after he died to call 911, Sehres said.
“It is heartbreaking in a way that is unimaginable,” she said. “I remember I couldn’t breathe, and I didn’t know if I would even make it through losing my son.”
According to Sehres, Scott had struggled with drugs for years and used them to self-medicate mental health afflictions. However, he had received treatment and had no reason to believe he would ever overdose.
“He would say how this would not happen to him, right? He was too smart for this to happen to him, and an overdose was only something that happened to other people,” Sehres said. “This can and does happen to everyone — every walk of life, every age, every gender. When they say drugs and overdose deaths don’t discriminate, they’re right.”
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To Jennifer Webb, Sehres’ pain is unfortunately familiar.
Webb is the executive director of Live Tampa Bay, a coalition of local leaders dedicated to reducing opioid deaths across the Tampa Bay area.
“The Tampa Bay area, again this year, is leading the other regions in the state in the rate of overdoses,” Webb said. “And this is just heartbreaking, and so we need all of the tools in our toolbox in order to fight this.”
Wednesday, Webb learned a new tool will be available in the future.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Narcan, in the form of a naloxone hydrochloride nasal spray, for over-the-counter (OTC), nonprescription use.
The lifesaving drug quickly reverses the effects of an overdose.
Over the years, Narcan has become more readily available. First responders across the country now carry it and have used it successfully to save lives.
In addition, various nonprofits and other organizations offer it to those at risk of drug overdoses. Additionally, states across the country, including Florida, have “standing orders,” which help disperse the lifesaving drug to those who need it.
However, Webb saID Narcan still isn’t “everyday accessible,” and she thinks the move to make it over-the-counter will “absolutely” save lives.
“I think that this will increase accessibility. It’ll also, I think, drop the price to make it more affordable,” she said. “What we want to do is make sure that people stay alive until they can get on that road to recovery, and so that’s what this is about.”
Sehres believes Narcan may have saved her son’s life had the drug been more available at the time of his death.
However, she has mixed emotions about making it over the counter.
“This is not a silver bullet,” she warned. “It’s a win, but it’s not the silver bullet.”
Along with the over-the-counter availability, she wants to see more education about the good Samaritan laws that safeguard those seeking medical assistance or Narcan for people experiencing overdoses.
She would also like more education about the signs of an overdose.
Additionally, she wants communities to address why people are using drugs in the first place.
For her son, she thinks mental health issues and insecurities — fueled by social media — caused distress and pushed him to drugs.
“My son, actually — I found on his phone — he had an app on his phone that was a like counter, and he could put in this app, I guess, a post that he was going to do, and it would project for him how many likes he would get,” she said. “We’re not making those critical connections that we as humans need to be, you know, more fulfilled, and we’re turning to substances to fill that void.”
Until then, she feels overdoses will continue to happen in Tampa Bay and across the country.
According to the FDA, over 101,750 reported fatal overdoses occurred in the 12 months ending in October 2022.
In a news release, the FDA said the manufacturer of the Naloxone nasal spray, Narcan, still determines how much the over-the-counter drug will cost and when it will become available to the public.
To see where the lifesaving drug is currently available in each Florida county, click here.
