A nasal spray used to treat suspected drug overdoses is being added to hundreds of Devon and Cornwall Police vehicles. The force said naloxone, which temporarily reverses the effects of opioid-based drugs, will be rolled out to 400 police vehicles to help save lives.
As recreational drugs are increasingly laced with potentially lethal opioids, experts are highly concerned about overdoses. Cocaine and ecstasy users represent a “whole new cohort” who should carry naloxone, the life-saving medication to treat opioid overdoses, officials say.
Demand for a life-saving opioid overdose drug has doubled in one year as a “whole new cohort” of stimulant and hallucinogenic users, fearful of taking lethally laced narcotics, have rushed to get the medication. Prior to a recent spike in overdose deaths, regular users of illicit opioids were the predominant users of naloxone, which can rapidly reverse an overdose.
Alaska is implementing a new law that requires all schools to have naloxone on hand, in response to the severity of the state’s opioid-involved overdose crisis.
Neighbourhood Northamptonshire Police officers in Northampton, Wellingborough and Kettering, will now be carrying the spray, having been trained and certified in its use. Terry Gilfoyle, at Change Grow Live Northants, has been part of the training programme with the force and says the pilot is a “major breakthrough”.
A new implant could help prevent overdose deaths by automatically administering the OD-reversing drug naloxone, a new study shows. The implant, about the size of a stick of gum, is placed under the skin, where it monitors vital signs like heart rate and breathing, researchers say.