'A problem that's becoming harder and harder to treat': Medics giving higher doses of Narcan for overdoses

    OMAHA, Nebraska (KETV) -- The Douglas County Sheriff's Office is investigating a fentanyl overdose that happened in corrections this past weekend. They say the man was revived thanks to Narcan.

The Omaha Fire Department says lately, their medics are having to administer higher doses of the medicine because of how potent street drugs are.

When it comes to overdoses, Omaha firefighters say the drugs poisoning people are changing.

"It's a problem that's becoming harder and harder to treat," said Fire Union President Trevor Towey. "We used to go to a lot of morphine and stuff like that — those were the type of drugs that we responded to that Narcan would be effective on."

Having to administer higher doses for fentanyl overdoses is a challenge Towey said has become new but more common for medics.

"The Narcan doesn't respond to them the same way as we were accustomed to them responding to in overdoses in years past," Towey said.

Typically, Omaha Fire says the initial dose they give of Narcan is two milligrams.

But the Omaha Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA, says the amount of Narcan needed, depends on how much fentanyl or opioids is in a person's system.

And that can be difficult to know initially because of how drugs are being manufactured.

Two milligrams of fentanyl is the standard lethal dose. But Travis Ocken, the DEA assistant special agent in charge, said other factors can determine how someone's body reacts to the drug.

For the DEA, this is just one reason why spreading the dangers of fentanyl is critical.

Omaha's division of the DEA said they are seeing a decrease in overdoses related to fentanyl for the first time since 2018. They're also seeing a decrease in potency of fentanyl pills but an increase in powder fentanyl.