Pubdate: Wed, 27 Jan 2016
Source: Campbell River Mirror (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Campbell River Mirror
Contact:  http://www.campbellrivermirror.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1380

NALOXONE A LIFE-SAVER

Indications that the province of British Columbia will allow 
firefighters to carry naloxone, also known as Narcan, is welcome.

The drug is known as the "antidote" to opiate overdose, and can 
reverse the otherwise deadly effects of ingesting too much heroin 
and/or fentanyl.

Despite often being first on the scene of overdoses, firefighters, 
police officers and others who don't have a required prescription for 
naloxone have thus far been banned from carrying the drug.

Addressing that is a move that is long overdue, given the stakes 
involved and the safe nature of Naloxone.

It is available over the counter in more than a dozen U.S. states, 
and hospitals in Canada have been using the drug for more than four decades.

Earlier this summer, Health Canada promised that it would review the 
drug's prescription-only status, although a full process was expected 
to take more than a year.

Whatever the outcome of that review, the fact that it's only being 
done now - after too many deaths from accidental overdoses - shows 
that our society, and our government institutions, still have much 
they can do to help those on the fringes who have frequently been overlooked.

Opiate use affects a far greater number of Vancouver Island residents 
than the casual observer may know.

While the drugs drive some into a life of homelessness and property 
crime, they are also used by husbands and mothers, sons and 
daughters, employees and bosses who conduct lives not stereotypically 
associated with hard drug use.

In cases of overdose, all of those people - those on the fringes, and 
those in the mainstream - deserve the best shot at life, and the best 
opportunity at eventually overcoming their addictions.

The quicker the province moves on this initiative, for all emergency 
responders, the better.

- -Black Press
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom