Since February, Veronica Gomez, 45, has called south Stockton’s Valley Sober Living Facility home.
She lives in a small room surrounded by encouraging signs she hung on her walls to help her on the road to recovery. She is here because, for 20 years, she was a heroin addict.
“Ya know, you wake up and if you don’t have that fix, what we call that fix in the morning, it’s hard," Gomez said.
She’s never overdosed, but knows the dangers. That’s why the San Joaquin County Health Department is distributing a lifesaving tool to people who might need it. It’s Naloxone, better known as Narcan, a nasal spray that can save a life in seconds if someone has overdosed on opioids.
“Put it in their nostril and squirt," Zienna Blackwell-Rodriquez, Senior Deputy Director for San Joaquin County Public Health Services, said. "And, if they had actually taken an opioid, then it will reverse the effects of that."
Last year, there were 57 opioid deaths in San Joaquin County. That’s more deaths than Stanislaus or Sacramento Counties.
“I think it’s best if they can make it accessible to people," Gomez said.
Since the giveaway launched late last year, more than 400 kits have been handed out to the homeless, first responders, and drug rehab centers thanks to a state public health grant.
Dale Benner, executive director of Stockton’s New Directions, is helping 65 recovering addicts.
“It’s past due, because the more these kits get out in the community, it will just spread the ability and multiply the ability to respond to such an emergency," Benner said.
Nearly seven months, clean and sober, Gomez is beating her addiction. And she’s adding more goals to her to-do list.
“I would like to be a grandmother to my grandchildren and be a mother to my children," Gomez said.
If you would like a kit, contact San Joaquin County Public Health at 209-468-3400. They are located at 1601 E. Hazelton in Stockton.
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