Health Leaders Push To Get Naloxone Into Hands Of Those Who Use Opioids
"They are the ones most likely to save someone,” Savannah O’Neill, a coordinator of an Overdose Prevention Education and Naloxone Distribution Project in California.
San Jose Mercury News:
Opioid Epidemic Fuels Demand For Overdose Drug
Naloxone — often referred to as Narcan — blocks opioid receptors in the brain to counteract the effects of an overdose. It comes in a spray and injectable form, and has long been used successfully by paramedics and hospital emergency room staff to treat overdoses. Despite evidence that training opioid users and those close to them to use the drug saves lives, the organizations that provide it say they haven’t been able to get the funding to purchase enough of the drug to keep up with demand. Yet as opioid-related deaths continue to mount, there are efforts in some areas to make the drug more widely available. (Drummond, 1/25)