The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Tuesday will consider a proposal to place a supply of the overdose-reversal drug naloxone, or Narcan, at county libraries and train librarians how to administer it. “Narcan is easy to use, anyone can carry it, and it saves lives,” Supervisor Janice Hahn, who introduced the motion, said in a statement.
Delayed by shipping wait times and packaged in nondescript cardboard, 100,000 doses of Pfizer’s injectable drug were delivered Wednesday by a driver who steered two massive pallets into an unassuming warehouse that is home to the newly created nonprofit Remedy Alliance, which is expected to distribute mass amounts of the drug that reverses opioid overdoses to smaller community groups. Eliza Wheeler, one of the founders of Remedy Alliance, took in the scene of the shoulder-high stacks.
On August 1, Remedy Alliance/For the People, formerly known as the Opioid Safety and Naloxone Network Buyers Club, launched its online store and and began processing orders for injectable naloxone. It will fill them not only through its long-standing contract with Pfizer, but also through a second naloxone manufacturer, which Remedy Alliance cofounders confirmed to Filter is Hikma Pharmaceuticals.
Each year, in addition to learning how to administer naloxone, about 350,000 students will learn about opioids and how to identify when to call 911, when to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation and when to give naloxone. The training will first be deployed in Quebec, Alberta, Ontario, and British Columbia before expanding to other provinces.
A series of naloxone focused images made with lego have started doing the rounds on social media. They have been created by Thomas Valentine a 999 call operator based in Scotland.
It has always been complicated to help vulnerable Ukrainians who use drugs. For Kvitkovskiy and other members of a network of harm reduction organisers, the already difficult mission has become vastly more dangerous since Russia invaded Ukraine.