A Way To Save Lives
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Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Dancing in the Light
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A Way To Save Lives
This is a new iniative in the city where I live. There is already a Harm Reduction Program in place where addicts can get clean needles. That helps prevent spread of HIV and helps to keep need the Community needle-free.
Addicts get anti-overdose kits
Published On Mon Oct 31, 2011
A new program that allows drug users to inject each other with a medication that can avert deadly overdoses is already saving lives.
For the last two months, Public Health officials have been providing drug users with kits containing two doses of an injectable drug that can prevent people from overdosing on opioids, including morphine and heroin.
The kits have saved at least four people from overdose, said the manager of Public Health’s needle exchange program.
“This drug is very effective and quick,” she said, noting it will bring someone out of an overdose within one to four minutes. “It’s what EMS uses if intervening in an opiate overdose.”
The kits contain safety-engineered needles and two doses of naloxone, which works by blocking opioid receptors in the brain.
Drug users given the kits have been trained to use them and to spot the signs of overdose, which include slow, shallow breathing, blue lips and general unresponsiveness.
“We are telling people if someone you are using opiates with has any of these symptoms, you call 911 . . . administer the dose and do chest compressions,” she said.
Since Aug. 31, officials have shown 75 people how to inject naloxone — the generic form of the brand-name drug Narcan — and the kits have been used to prevent four overdose deaths.
“In all four cases, the person was revived. Two people went to hospital for observation and the other two cases chose not to go to hospital.”
About 100 people die from drug overdose in this city every year. She said the kits should help reduce the number of preventable deaths.
She also said the inexpensive kit, which costs about $25, will likely cut health care costs since fewer people will have to be taken to hospital.
The experience has shown people who carry the kits become more responsible in their drug use, sometimes cutting down or eliminating their intake.“
It’s a very inexpensive and positive way to work with the community of people who use drugs. Most importantly it saves lives.”[/B]
Addicts get anti-overdose kits
Published On Mon Oct 31, 2011
A new program that allows drug users to inject each other with a medication that can avert deadly overdoses is already saving lives.
For the last two months, Public Health officials have been providing drug users with kits containing two doses of an injectable drug that can prevent people from overdosing on opioids, including morphine and heroin.
The kits have saved at least four people from overdose, said the manager of Public Health’s needle exchange program.
“This drug is very effective and quick,” she said, noting it will bring someone out of an overdose within one to four minutes. “It’s what EMS uses if intervening in an opiate overdose.”
The kits contain safety-engineered needles and two doses of naloxone, which works by blocking opioid receptors in the brain.
Drug users given the kits have been trained to use them and to spot the signs of overdose, which include slow, shallow breathing, blue lips and general unresponsiveness.
“We are telling people if someone you are using opiates with has any of these symptoms, you call 911 . . . administer the dose and do chest compressions,” she said.
Since Aug. 31, officials have shown 75 people how to inject naloxone — the generic form of the brand-name drug Narcan — and the kits have been used to prevent four overdose deaths.
“In all four cases, the person was revived. Two people went to hospital for observation and the other two cases chose not to go to hospital.”
About 100 people die from drug overdose in this city every year. She said the kits should help reduce the number of preventable deaths.
She also said the inexpensive kit, which costs about $25, will likely cut health care costs since fewer people will have to be taken to hospital.
The experience has shown people who carry the kits become more responsible in their drug use, sometimes cutting down or eliminating their intake.“
It’s a very inexpensive and positive way to work with the community of people who use drugs. Most importantly it saves lives.”[/B]
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