Ambulance paramedics are to supply to patients at risk of an opiate overdose take-home naloxone as part of a pilot scheme in Glasgow. The three-month trial, funded by Scotland’s Drug Deaths Taskforce, will see those treated by paramedics for a non-fatal overdose who decline to attend hospitial, and their friends and family, given a naloxone kit – which temporarily reverses the effect of an opioid overdose.
Distribution of life-saving overdose revival kits increased by 40% last year, new figures show. The charity We Are With You, which works on drugs, alcohol and mental health, has welcomed the increase, but warns more must be done to equip all those at risk.
After back to back months of record illicit drug overdose deaths in B.C., a former user who escaped Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside alive after battling homelessness and addiction for decades is working to educate and inspire others with his recovery. Today, Guy Felicella has a home, a wife, and three young children – including a new baby boy – but life has been a wild ride.
After a year-long pilot program in Kensington, the center of Philadelphia’s drug overdose crisis, researchers are hoping to test a smartphone app that helps citizens respond to overdoses citywide.
Over 49 consecutive nights throughout the pandemic, staff provided an immediate response for 155 individuals; supplied 162 individuals with naloxone and administered naloxone on three occasions to reverse potentially fatal drug overdoses.
Before the pandemic took hold, overdose deaths hit a national record of almost 71,000 in 2019, according to preliminary data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and published last week. The highest peak yet comes on the heels of a meager 4.1 percent decline in overdose deaths in 2018, at the time celebrated by President Trump as “tremendous” progress. That flimsy and fragile achievement has rapidly unraveled, and by all indicators, overdose deaths are on track to get even worse in 2020. Anecdotal reports and local data illustrate an alarming spike in overdoses since stay-at-home orders were issued in March.
