The man was a recreational drug user, Shelly Norton-Williams recounted Tuesday, and he thought the pill he’d received from a friend was oxycodone.
However, according to Norton-Williams, a prevention specialist with the Rappahannock Area Services Board, he was mistaken.
It was fentanyl.
The individual collapsed and was in the midst of an overdose before his wife administered him Narcan.
“He was very clear that it was the last time he was going to do something like that,” Norton-Williams said.
That second chance was only made possible by Naloxone, commonly known as Narcan. How to properly administer the life-saving drug was the subject of a training event held at the Salem Fields Community Church in Spotsylvania County.
The training event was part of a bigger fentanyl awareness town hall called “One Pill Can Kill,” which was hosted by Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares. The panel included state Sen. Tara Durant (R-Stafford), DEA Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Division Chris Goumenis, Maj. Jason Dembowski of the Stafford Sheriff’s Office, Maj. Delbert Myrick of the Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office and fentanyl survivor and recovery advocate Melissa Webb. Salem Fields Community Church Pastor James Howard served as moderator.
Miyares touted Virginia’s role in reducing the number of opioid overdoses across the country, claiming that the state had made a “remarkable turnaround.”
According to data from the Virginia Department of Health, there were 2,463 drug overdose deaths in the commonwealth. Almost eight out of 10 of those deaths involved fentanyl, fentanyl analogs and tramadol.
This number is actually a 1% decrease from deaths recorded in 2022. Drug overdose deaths in Virginia peaked in 2021 at 2,622. Preliminary projections by the VDH show that as of June 2025 there have been 1,552 opioid related deaths. This current number marks an over 43% decrease in deaths from its peak in 2021.
Similar numbers were reported in an April 2025 press release made by the Office of Gov. Glenn Youngkin. That same release also announced that data from the Centers for Disease Control showed that Virginia led the nation in year-over-year reductions in drug overdose deaths between Nov. 2023 and Nov. 2024.
The Narcan training led by Norton-Williams included a presentation informing the public on the issue of opioid overdoses. The presentation included information about the different types of opioid-based drugs, their effects and a video presentation on how to administer Narcan to a person.
Naloxone, commonly known as Narcan, was developed at the Research Institute for Drug Addiction at the New York University Medical Center in 1961. Created by Dr. Jack Fishman and Mozes Lewinstein, the drug was created to treat opioid toxicity by blocking the effects of such drugs in the brain and restoring respiratory functions which would effectively reverse an overdose.
A nasal-spray version of Narcan was later developed by LakeLight Therapeutics in partnership with the institute. It’s this version that has become the current method used to combat opioid overdoses.
Jennifer Bateman, a prevention specialist with RACSB, also related a story about how Narcan saved the life of someone experiencing an opioid overdose. Bateman said that she gets a lot of her feedback from students since she often visits schools.
One such story came to her from a nursing student at King George High School who administered Narcan to a relative in Kentucky during Christmas vacation. Bateman said that this relative had second-hand contact with fentanyl, and the student utilized her training to save the life of this relative. The prevention specialist added that this student had been told by a parent not to bring Narcan but did so anyway.
“It’s astounding to me the amount of times they don’t know exactly what they’re getting from a friend,” Bateman said. “They feel so much more secure when they have the tips and the tools.”
