Pinal County receives $320K grant for drug to treat opioid narcotic overdoses

By Richard Dyer
Mail | X: @RHDyer

A four-year, $80,000 annual grant will be used to purchase and distribute to Pinal County residents a drug that can treat opioid narcotic overdoses in an emergency situation.

The Pinal County Public Health Services District Board of Directors, comprised of the county board of supervisors, voted 4-0 April 2 to approve the overdose data to action grant for Sept. 1, 2024, to Aug. 31, 2028, between Arizona Department of Health Services and the district through the board of supervisors. Director Mike Goodman was absent.

Prior to the vote, Gold Canyon resident Roberto Reveles asked if recent defunding decisions by the U.S. government would impact the funds received by Pinal County.

“With the recent announcement by President Trump of the pulling of funds, what impact does that have on this grant?” Reveles asked.

Jan Vidimos, a manager with Pinal County Public Health, thanked Reveles for the question and said the funds will be used to purchase Naxolone.

“So this grant works with prevention methods and methods that are considered harm-reduction methods. So what we’re doing right now is we’re getting Naxolone in the hands of as many community members as possible. We know that folks who — whether they’re using paid medication legitimately as their doctor prescribed or they suffer from substance abuse disorder — may end up with a situation were they have taken too much. And Naxolone saves lives,” she said.

“Should the program go away, we do have opioid settlement dollars that are available to the county, which we would apply for obviously to continue the program.” Vidimos said.

Other programs with the Arizona Department of Health Services provide Naxolone to emergency medical services and law-enforcement officials, she said.

Richard H. Dyer can be reached at rdyer@iniusa.org, or on X @rhdyer. To voice your opinion on this story, connect with us at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.

Richard Dyer
Managing Editor | East Valley

rdyer@iniusa.org

Meet Richard
Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA since 1987, starting his career in Apache Junction as a copy editor and being promoted over the years to work as the editor of the Mesa Independent, news services editor for the East Valley office in Apache Junction, managing editor for the East Valley office, news services editor for the East Valley office and eventually also for the newspapers at INI’s then-Chandler office, managing editor again and as a news editor covering Apache Junction/Gold Canyon and Queen Creek. He helped start the Florence Independent while the news editor covering Apache Junction and Mesa news. In January 2023, he became associate managing editor for the East Valley newspapers and in August 2023 became managing editor for the East Valley newspapers of Chandler/Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Florence, Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, while also reporting on Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon.  

Community: Since 2009, he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014, has been overseeing the art submissions. 

Education: University of Arizona with a master of arts in journalism and a bachelor of science in agricultural communication. Also continuing education at Mesa Community College in welding in a metal art sculpture class.

Random fact: Saw his first tornado on May 31, 2010, which was classified as an EF-2, as part of a stormchasing tour group.

Hobbies: He is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows.