17 States Give Anti-Overdose Drug to Addicts

17 States Give Anti-Overdose Drug to Addicts
June 4, 2009

News Summary

A pioneering Chicago program that allows opiate addicts and their friends to administer the anti-overdose medication naloxone to those in distress has been replicated in 17 states, Time magazine reported May 29.

The Chicago Recovery Alliance has distributed more than 11,000 anti-overdose kits through needle-exchange programs and other sites. In an least 1,000 instances, friends and fellow drug users have administered naloxone (Narcan) to overdosing opiate users, saving hundreds of lives, according to Chicago Recovery Alliance head Dan Bigg.

Narcan is commonly used in emergency rooms and by EMTs to stop overdoses in progress, but distributing the drug to addicts allows for a faster response to a crisis and helps avoid the situation where users are afraid to call for help because they don't want to be arrested for drug use.

Project Lazarus in North Carolina is one example of the naloxone-distribution campaigns being developed nationally. Such programs now exist in at least 17 states as well as the cities of New York, Baltimore, Boston, San Francisco, and Chicago.

Some critics say that naloxone programs encourage drug use, but to date the projects have not run into as much resistance as needle exchanges have. "I think people who study it up close realize that you could not have a purer case of a chance for life versus the risk of death," said Bigg. Naloxone is considered a very safe drug, and recent research in the journal Addiction found that trained addicts administered the drug as effectively as medical professionals.

"We've got a medication that is incredibly effective at reversing overdoses," said Wilson Compton, director of the Division of Epidemiological Services and Prevention Research for the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "It makes good logical sense. I wish we had a rigorous evaluation of the benefits and potential risks."

COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE:

Posted by Vickie on 05 Jun 09 09:25 AM EDT

I feel by handing this out to drug addicts who don't want to call for help for fear of being arrested is enabling their addiction. If they end up getting arrested because they or someone else calls, then they are more likely to get help through the system for their addiction. This is just allowing them to continue feeding the addiction because now they know they have a way to escape not only the arrest but also death. Where is the motive to stop now???

Posted by connie on 05 Jun 09 09:33 AM EDT

I agree Vickie. Could this drug naloxone be put to better use. Instead of anti overdose how about anti using. Has this med been tried in clinical trials for that?

Posted by Bruce Angleman on 05 Jun 09 10:02 AM EDT

This is the most effective harm reduction program for overdose that I could imagine. This program saves lives. I would also like to see legislation creating a no questions asked policy for anyone taking an overdose victim to the ER.

Posted by Allan Clear on 05 Jun 09 10:16 AM EDT

Naloxone is used by emergency healthcare workers everyday. It's a safe, effective drug. Putting it in the hands of the people who use drugs saves lives. Allowing people to overdose and possibly die as a way of motivating people to stop using is not a thoughtful solution.

Posted by counselor on 05 Jun 09 10:21 AM EDT

I don't like the idea of addicts running around with this drug. It allows them to party safe...I don't want someone wasted shooting me up for the fun of it. Not a good idea. I do like the idea of the no questions asked policy. Just like you have three days to drop off a newborn at the hospital with no questions...you should be able to drop off someone who OD's. There are cameras in the ER so if someone would die......

Posted by Daniel on 05 Jun 09 10:44 AM EDT

This saves lives, money due to no police, ambulance or ER room visits, and harm reduction is a viable treatment modality.

Posted by John from Oceanside on 05 Jun 09 11:06 AM EDT

Harm reduction is not a treatment modality, if anything it is pre-treatment. Where are the numbers of individuals who stop using from harm reduction programs. I offered free intervention beds to a Harm Reduction Program and in 7 years they have used 2 beds.

Posted by Lisa on 05 Jun 09 12:24 PM EDT

To think allowing folks to OD/Die is going to somehow get them into treatment is not familiar with addiction. An active user only sees two choices: use Narcan on a friend - or 'hope' they don't die. That is the reason this program has been created. The idea that needle exchange or Narcan(harm reduction)encourages drug addiction is similar to thinking educating and providing birth control makes kids have sex. Whoever comfortably choses the risk of death over Narcan better hope a loved one never gets mixed up with opiates.

Posted by Diane Kopperman on 05 Jun 09 12:37 PM EDT

On the contrary, "Counselor", this drug will NOT allow people to "party safe". It gives heroin users a false sense of security. As I'm sure you all know, many addicts die with the needle still in their arm, thereby never even getting the chance to use narcon. Overdoses happen in a fraction of a second and the only true second chance is to not use. Plus, I agree that Vickie that this will enable addicts to continue to use heroin without being forced to seek tx. I believe this strategy is not only ineffective, it is unethical. However, my complaints have NOTHING to do with the drug itself. It can and should be used to treat overdose, but it shouldn't be PRN.

Posted by Carol on 05 Jun 09 01:12 PM EDT

Narcan can be deadly in the hands of untrained people. It can cause death. More prescrition drug abuse TO ADDICTS. Will the deaths be transparent or hid in autopsy like Naltrexone ? There is research that proves the dangers , take the time to read it then see how safe it is.

Posted by kmanladac on 05 Jun 09 04:58 PM EDT

I don't read that anyone has wanted to be proactive on this issue. If this can save lives why not have classes in methadone clinics or other TX outlets.What do ya'll think??

Posted by susan on 05 Jun 09 06:37 PM EDT

If this program had been implemented my daughter would not have died. She would be alive today and given the opportunity to seek drug rehab --

Posted by Andrea-Chicago on 07 Jun 09 03:48 PM EDT

I've lost many, many friends simply because they did not have access to this anti-overdose drug. Substance abuse is almost as out as mankind! For the fundamentally judgementally inclined, wait until it happens to one of your love ones! In a "perfect world", we wouldn't have any addictions, but in this real world we do & we need to swim out of that river of denial and meet people "where they are at" The ministers wish everyone was "saved & filled with the holy ghost" But let those who live in a "glass house" cast the first stone!

Posted by maiasz on 08 Jun 09 08:51 AM EDT

Some facts should guide this discussion: 1) Not true that Narcan can kill. If you've got data showing otherwise, it's not in peer reviewed lit and you should publish. 2) Not true that addicts die of OD "in seconds." If they die in seconds, it's heart attack or poisoning, not opioid overdose or more accurately, mixed depressant OD (most fatal OD's are opioids plus benzos and/or alcohol). Again, if you got data, publish. Anecdotes don't cut it. 3) Not true that naloxone encourages "more use" or "false security." Same argument was made against needle exchange-- false then, false now. Where do addicts get the extra money to use more when you give them naloxone?

Posted by silverbird on 08 Jun 09 11:23 AM EDT

There is absolutely no proof that this saves lives. In all probability those using it would die eventually anyway as we are only enabling them to continue to overdose a few more times. They need treatment not a drug that enables them to overdose a few more times....

Posted by Ashamed on 08 Jun 09 11:37 AM EDT

I am ashamed at everyone who would rather have drug users die than help them "party safe." It is disgusting that you would let individuals die in the name of fighting the unwinnable battle against societal addiction. Do drug users deserve Human Rights? In particular, the right to live?

Posted by Scott Stokes on 08 Jun 09 11:42 AM EDT

Hands down, naloxone saves lives. Ask the 400 plus opiate addicts in Wisconsin who have experienced an opiate overdose and had their peers reverse it.

Posted by John Sheppard on 08 Jun 09 11:55 AM EDT

Just which stated do and do not give anti-overdose medications to addicts?

Posted by Anne on 08 Jun 09 12:02 PM EDT

When we were trained it was explained to us that Narcan has absolutely no effect on anyone that is not high on opiates. It does not get you high or harm you. How can saving someone's life, your sibling, cousin, child, father, mom, friend....be a bad thing. Think again, please.

Posted by Sandi on 08 Jun 09 12:10 PM EDT

My daughter died of a heroin overdose on November 5, 2005. It is just possible that if she had access to Naloxone in her home and her fiancé was able to give it to her, she might be alive today. Not every heroin addict lives on the street. Many are educated employed individuals that have the disease of addiction and struggle with it every day. I testified in Sacramento to get a pilot program started in California. Administering Naloxone may save a life and give someone a second chance at life and rehabilitation. Loving mother of Jennifer Carol Lee

Posted by Franklin Percival on 08 Jun 09 02:14 PM EDT

You CAN'T help the dead, so if we can keep people alive and THEN help them, so much the better. I write as a carer, but the same principle would apply for me if I were not.

Posted by barrySchecter on 09 Jun 09 06:47 AM EDT

There is really no reason that in a free society, anyone ever overdoses on heroin, has to use unclean equipment, causing spread of diseases, or for that matter, can't buy drugs legally. We have learned as a nation that prohibition doesn't work. Why do we think it will work know?

Posted by bonnie on 10 Jun 09 02:20 PM EDT

I run a research/science based support group for people with "loved ones" addicted to opiates. We have lost 4 young men in 2 yrs. to overdoses. So was astounded that when I read a previous article on JT relating to this subject to my group, a guest (a facilitator of another support group) also believed this would "enable" people to continue to do these drugs. (Her daughter is a Heroin addict). I simply asked her what's more important - saving her life or making a point to not enable? Watching your child die and putting her/him in a coffin proves what point exactly???? Maybe she would feel better knowing that she did nothing to help her child live - I would forever feel guilt and regret for not having done everything I could in my power to help a person survive. I agree with Lisa - this same kind of skewed thinking is applied here as with sex education - that supplying condoms and providing safe sex ed., - not just abstinence ed. promotes sex. Guess what - girls are having more sex than ever before - deal with it - realistically! Ashamed has got it right - letting another human being die, especially one who has this horrible disease is abominable and inhumane.

Posted by Sharon Stancliff on 11 Jun 09 09:12 AM EDT

To Silverbird: We are seeing overdose mortality decrease in many areas implementing distribution of naloxone: Chicago, Baltimore San Francisco, Pittsburgh and others. Not absolute proof but getting there. You can find some of this if you search Join Together on narcan.

Safe-Injection Site Could Be Established in San Francisco

Baltimore Credits Treatment for Decline in Overdose Deaths

Mass. to Distribute Overdose Medication to Addicts

Drive to Make Naloxone More Available in U.K.

Opioid Treatment Program Directory

Pain Management Without Psychological Dependence: A Guide for Healthcare Providers