2019 marks the close of a decade of unimaginable loss to our communities. Likely an underestimate, we lost half a million of our friends in these last ten years to the War on Drugs-fueled overdose crisis. With deep reverence for this painful truth, we want to take a moment to uplift and reflect upon the power of one small group of Harm Reduction programs who were responsible for distributing an enormous portion of the nation’s naloxone directly to people who use drugs and those who love them this past year.

The overdose reversal drug is simple, cost-effective and saves lives. But it has to be with the right people at the right time to make a difference.

Ahead of the busy holiday travel season, one U.S. congressman is pushing to add a life-saving drug on airplanes. Last summer some airlines agreed to carry naloxone after a Delta passenger died from an opioid overdose.

An opioid overdose can be a lonely death. People who use drugs often do so in private, and should they get a dose stronger than they can tolerate, no one will be there to save them with the overdose-reversing medication naloxone. But now, a researcher at Northwestern University is developing a technological fix to that lethal conundrum.

Addaction, the drug and alcohol charity which provides drug treatment services, is to launch a pilot on Monday in Redcar and Cleveland, in the north-east of England, to hand out naloxone to users of opioids on the streets.

It is unclear where this rumor started. The only available evidence to support the phenomenon seems to come from two case reports from 1992 – notably, not even in substance users. Even more notably, naloxone-induced assaults have not been reproduced over the subsequent decades. All of the credible evidence that we have, suggesting administering naloxone will result in provider assault, are two case reports from the 1990s.