Narcan Overdose Rescue Kit Available for Family Members of Opiate Addicts

Each year, overdose deaths from heroin and prescription drugs like OxyContin outnumber fatalities from murder, hepatitis or AIDS.  We are constantly concerned as we watch  the increase in fatal overdoses in Orange County (particularly in Newport Beach and other "beach cities."

Now, public health workers and private citizens in many states have a weapon to combat opiate drug overdoses – a rescue kit that can save a life - for less than $10.  The rescue kit contains a prepackaged dose of an antidote drug called Narcan (the brand name for naloxone).  When administered as a nasal spray within minutes of an overdose, Narcan can restore breathing (the cause of death in a drug overdose is usually loss of respiratory function).  

Narcan has been used in hospital emergency rooms since the 1970s to counteract the fatal effects of opiate drugs such as:

• OxyContin
  
• Vicodin
  
• heroin
  
• fentanyl
  
• methadone
• morphine
  
• codeine
  

It has only recently been made available to the general public.  Overdose rescue kits were introduced in 2006 in Massachusetts, where cheap high-grade heroin was resulting in more than 500 overdose deaths per year.  The Massachusetts Department of Public Health decided to distribute Narcan kits to drug addicts through the state's needle exchange program and to provide instruction in how to use them.

After the first year of operation, Massachusetts expanded the rescue kit program to include family and friends of opiate users.  In early 2010, the state reported that more than 500 overdoses had been reversed by Narcan rescue kits.  On the Massachusetts state website, Governor Deval Patrick calls the Narcan program a way to save lives, cut health care costs and help some of the state's most vulnerable citizens.

Several Narcan pilot projects have been launched in Europe, and  Narcan rescue kit programs are currently underway in several states, including:

• California
  
• New York
  
• Maryland
• Wisconsin
  
• New Mexico
  
• Pennsylvania
  
• Illinois.  
  

Critics of Narcan Rescue Kit

Despite the success of the Narcan distribution program in Massachusetts and other states, there are critics of the rescue kits.  Most notably, the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy has stated opposition based on the belief that an overdose is a medical crisis that should be handled by trained medical personnel.  Narcan advocates view it as life-saving measure that can keep a drug abuser alive until professional medical help is available.  Peter Moyer, director of Boston's emergency services, has called Narcan a "remarkably safe" drug. 

According to John Auerbach, Massachusetts State Public Health Commissioner, many addicts are not mentally ready for treatment.  Narcan rescue kits can prevent them from suffering a fatal overdose before they can be convinced them to seek treatment.

Here is a very informative video from the New York City department of health (New York's suburbs are also experiencing a wave of opiate overdoses).