Narcan Training Is on the Rise at D.C. Restaurants | Eater DC

"A cavernous indoor-outdoor bar in Park View whose owner, Anna Valero, is a big supporter of the prevention program has joined a D.C. Department of Behavioral Health (DBH) and Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington (RAMW) effort: DBH has distributed over 200 overdose awareness and prevention packets to area establishments in recent months, and the free toolkit includes naloxone, an essential opioid overdose-reversing medication also known as Narcan. The public program was first announced during July’s 42nd annual Rammy Awards—the local restaurant industry’s premiere gala that drew a record 2,500 attendees to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center this year. Valero says the industry’s need is two-fold: "One, the reality is venues don’t know what people are taking before they walk in the door," and "Second, there is no denying the fact that folks in the hospitality industry have higher rates of substance abuse issues." She also notes that businesses face no liability when it comes to administering life-saving aid to customers in grave emergencies such as sudden opioid overdoses, and that D.C.’s Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration (ABCA) encourages licensees to stock up on Narcan and train staff on its usage. "We look at it no differently than teaching people CPR or alcohol awareness training. We’re making sure we are being responsible citizens by being able to respond," she says, and she adds that bathrooms are a common place where overdoses can happen: "We want to empower [hospitality] teams to know what they’re doing in those moments — they can be very frightening." The venue plans to host a free naloxone training session for industry folks on Thursday, November 21 from 2 p.m.-3 p.m.; Register here. The outreach comes amid encouraging national data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing a roughly 10 percent drop in overdose deaths from April 2023–24 to about 101,000, a decline health experts partly attribute to increased naloxone access, even as fentanyl was present in more than 97 percent of fatal overdoses in 2023. "It’s key to get ahead of the holiday season, when mental health and substance issues tend to spike," she says." - Tierney Plumb