Take Home Naloxone Program via Participating Community Pharmacies

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Take Home Naloxone Program via Participating Community Pharmacies
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Arturo88 on 27/08/2024 - 09:03 ppaonline.com.au (1142 clicks)
Last edited 28/08/2024 - 08:06 by 1 other user

From 1 July 2022, naloxone is available for free with no prescription. This is for anyone who may experience, or witness, an opioid overdose or adverse reaction.

Naloxone is a drug that can temporarily reverse the effects of an opioid overdose or adverse reaction. If someone has overdosed on opioids they will be unconscious or awake, but unable to talk. It’s unlikely they will be able to administer naloxone themselves.

Naloxone can be taken by injection or delivery through a nasal spray. It works by blocking opioid drugs, such as heroin and oxycodone, from attaching to opioid receptors in the brain.

  • OP Note: The number of people immediately assuming that this is only for 'junkies' is shocking, showing a complete lack of empathy. Clearly you don't understand the realities of drug abuse in our communities. This isn't just for addicts—it's for everyone. It could save a teenager's life at a party, help your mother who has chronic back pain and accidentally overdoses, or protect young adults who might unknowingly take something laced while clubbing. It's a good life saving program.
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Comments

    • gilbarc on 27/08/2024 - 09:28
      +11

      It's not

    • JDearyMe on 27/08/2024 - 09:28
      +22

      So you don't take Naloxone as a replacement drug. This is only administered if someone has an overdose, which is usually from drugs they thought were one thing, but actually contain a dangerous amount of something else. All this does is potentially save someone's life.

      • 811b11e8 on 27/08/2024 - 13:53
        -3

        Also risks someone else’s life have you seen a junkie have a high interrupted

        • Name on 27/08/2024 - 14:29
          +2

          This drug is only for someone overdosing - ie. they're passed out convulsing, not running around giving it to junkies who don't want it.

          /edit just saw the comments further down and your other comment, you're right, definitely a bit scary! I've never experienced it so don't know what i'm talking about obviously!

    • dscott85 on 27/08/2024 - 09:29
      +14

      Not addictive, it just binds with the opioid receptors making them unavailable for the illicit or legal opioid based medications.

        • Broomstick on 27/08/2024 - 09:37
          +15

          Again, this is not something you take every day silly man. It’s for when someone is having an adverse affect or an overdose.

          • 0jay on 27/08/2024 - 10:45
            -4

            @Broomstick: Also prescribed as pill to manage alcohol abuse. Can be taken daily for this use-case

            • bonezAU on 27/08/2024 - 13:24
              +2

              @0jay: You're not getting this confused with Naltrexone are you? Afaik they are very different.

        • Tech5 on 27/08/2024 - 09:44
          +6

          Well it’s good you are in no position to set policy or provide medical advice then, hey?

        • Schmiddler on 27/08/2024 - 09:46
          +12

          Doesn’t seem like you’re listening.

          This is like administering an epipen to somebody having an anaphylactic reaction - it doesn’t make you feel good, it stops the opiates from affecting you. It literally stops people from getting high and it would only be administered when somebody is having an adverse reaction.

        • Silentin on 27/08/2024 - 09:58
          +3

          It's an antagonist versus opiates being agonists. They bind but have no effect, essentially the same as antihistamines blocking histamine.

        • overlordpotatoe on 27/08/2024 - 10:22

          Binding to the same receptors doesn't mean something has the same effect. Caffeine for instance works by binding to the receptors that the sleepy chemicals use, blocking them so that you don't feel as tired.

      • Bunnyburger on 27/08/2024 - 10:04
        +5

        Explanation to Kid - It's medicine that stops the fun from killing you XD

      • Schmiddler on 27/08/2024 - 09:47
        +6

        They aren’t listening and clearly didn’t even read what the drug does… I can see why people are downvoting.

      • Jonzay on 27/08/2024 - 09:55
        +7

        You didn't ask a question though. You made a statement.

    • redfox1200 on 27/08/2024 - 09:58
      +2

      i'm so addicted to being not high.

  • dscott85 on 27/08/2024 - 09:27
    +78

    A good initiative. However, you may not be thanked for saving the person, take two steps back & one to the side after administration & be well out of punching range.

    • Not sure why the downvotes, I just passed on what I was told by emergency services.
    • DMFD on 27/08/2024 - 09:32
      +12

      No one likes being woken up!

      • payless69 on 27/08/2024 - 09:50
        +12

        We have progressed from the stone, bronze, iron to the WOKE age…..

        • DMFD on 27/08/2024 - 10:02
          +2

          There is no spoon.

        • Dandaman21 on 27/08/2024 - 12:02

          Is that the age of idiots running around shrieking "woke" at everything?

    • 191919 on 27/08/2024 - 09:34
      +14

      it ruins their high so if you are narcanning some rando best to scoot straight after as they can get unpredictable

    • mailbox on 27/08/2024 - 09:35
      +3

      yeah you’re right though just google some videos. You’re probably not going to be seen as a saviour from some people but as someone who just wrecked their high

    • PukeyLuke on 27/08/2024 - 09:45
      +22

      I had a housemate who was an ambulance officer, she had this issue on more than one occasion, where the patient was turning blue,
      they would administer Naloxone, then the patient would get angry with her, when they regained consciousness.
      She wished she had a polaroid camera to take a photo of them and slip it into their pocket, so the patient could later realise how close to death they were.

    • gakko on 27/08/2024 - 10:45
      +7

      Saw a lady turn blue while unconscious from OD in public. Ambos administered this stuff. She got up, didn't thank them, walked away.

    • 811b11e8 on 27/08/2024 - 13:57
      +5

      Just posted something similar don’t expect to be treated like a hero for saving someone’s life lol.

      Plenty of junkies near my work, open dealing on the street and a safe injection room a few mins walk away.

      If anyone is thinking of giving this to a junkie I’d be more than a few meters away.

      Mates wife was is a nurse and saw a junkie laying down, she asked if they where ok and they tried to snatch her hand bag dragging her down the road.

    • testpost on 27/08/2024 - 14:31
      +23

      This is true. Naloxone biologically crashes the individual out of a warm, dopey, numb slumber. In fact it's explicitly stated as causing acute opiate withdrawal symptoms within 2-5 minutes by the manufacturers.. It's like going from 0 to 100 instantly. They can't biologically help that they become irritable, irrational and in some cases acutely nauseous and feeling like garbage.

      • sw00p on 27/08/2024 - 20:41
        +4

        Bold of you to provide an informed, reasoned response, complete with citation.

      • Ademos on 27/08/2024 - 21:52

        Auwh. Poor junkies.

        • Skinnerr on 28/08/2024 - 03:36
          +1

          You wouldn't be so quick to judge if you knew what some/most of the 'junkies' have experienced in life.

          • Ademos on 29/08/2024 - 03:04
            +1

            @Skinnerr: You wouldnt be so quick to assume my comment was sarcasm if it didnt have a valid base.

            You not liking something doesnt make it less valid, fyi.

        • testpost on 28/08/2024 - 08:42

          The archetypal "junkie" doesn't really exist for opiate overdoses anymore, though.

  • liability on 27/08/2024 - 09:27
    +8

    Everyone should have Naloxone on hand for emergencies.

    It is free and might save someone's life. I have one in the car and one at home.

    Most pharmacies, at least in my area, have them for free.

    • Wiadro on 27/08/2024 - 09:33

      Yup could save someone’s life….

    • Silentin on 27/08/2024 - 09:55
      +15

      Christ, where do you live? I thought heroin was passe these days anyway. People are surely more likely to come across someone with anaphylaxis, where's the free epipens?

      • freefall101 on 27/08/2024 - 10:13
        +6

        It's the growing risk of prescription opioids, particularly fentanyl. Australia has been seriously lucky to not have a fentanyl epidemic like many other countries.

        That and while it seems less people take heroin, they're mixing it with benzos making it more likely to kill them.

        • Headless on 27/08/2024 - 12:12

          Saw someone just standing there with his head hung just outside a centrelink office in Vic, stood there motionless for about 5mins, Fentanyl is here for sure, only to get worse

        • cheekymonkey97 on 27/08/2024 - 15:26
          +1

          After being admitted to hospital last year and being pumped with fent I can completely understand why people get addicted to it. I’m genuinely surprised we haven’t had an epidemic here.

      • deventer on 27/08/2024 - 10:25
        +13

        Overdosing is a huge problem worldwide unfortunately. Decades of prohibition and law enforcement has essentially led to stronger and stronger drugs hitting the streets because they are often cheaper to manufacture and easier to traffic. The black market does not care about safety at all so a lot of things that are on the streets sold as one thing are actually something else. People can easily become inadvertently addicted to a substance because of this, or even because they were on opioid painkillers for a time and weren't properly informed how to taper off from them. All it takes from there to overdose is to be given fentanyl or nitazines instead of oxycodone and you're going to overdose.

        There is a lot of information out there that can do a lot better explanation than I can, it is worth reading up on because the more people who genuinely understand the problem the more pressure can be put on policymakers to act before it is too late (obviously for some it is too late already). We need to treat drug addiction as a health problem rather than a moral failing on the part of the individual. Needle exchange, supervised injecting rooms, naloxone, opioid substitution programs, housing support, mental health support, pill testing etc are all required services to make it all work properly. Look into the system in Portugal to understand how to do it best. Look at Oregon to see how easily a half-assed approach can really mess things up.

        • 811b11e8 on 27/08/2024 - 14:07
          -7

          Pill testing doesn’t fix anything.

          Most overdoses are now with legal prescription drugs where people know exactly what they are taking.

          The pro druggie side really need an education.

          The problem is definitely a health problem but the health departments lack the power to force treatment. Druggies never choose treatment it’s a complex problem.

          How do you make someone gets treatment when they won’t do it voluntarily?

      • magic8ballgag on 27/08/2024 - 11:29

        Christ, where do you live?

        Not under a rock like you clearly.

      • Horacio on 27/08/2024 - 12:00
        +1

        That would certainly be a good idea - as well, not instead.

      • ssfps on 27/08/2024 - 14:28
        +2

        You might be shocked at how many free needles are given out from free needle programs: it's millions. It was 3-4 million ~30 years ago, and it's only expanded. I can't find up to date numbers, but i'd be surprised if we were giving out less than 10 million needles per year.

        I don't know how many are wasted, or how many are used for meth/other substances, and I don't see anywhere to get that data.

        FYI i've seen boxes of fit packs being unloaded, 5000 needles to a box, dozens of boxes being unloaded, to a single location. We've got a shitload of opiate/meth/IV drug use.

        • DMFD on 28/08/2024 - 19:01
          +3

          Its to stop further burdens on the health system from sharing needles.
          Does a (profanity) load of good when the empties are being discarded in playgrounds.

        • May4th on 28/08/2024 - 19:54
          +1

          how much do you think ONE HIV patient cost Medicare over their life time?

          • ssfps on 29/08/2024 - 01:37
            +1

            @May4th: What has that got to do with estimating the number of heroin/IV drug users?

            • May4th on 29/08/2024 - 14:07

              @ssfps: that's the rationale for making needles free

              • ssfps on 30/08/2024 - 02:59
                +1

                @May4th: I understand the rationale perfectly well, but it's not relevant to the comment chain you're replying to.

        • cfuse on 28/08/2024 - 21:49
          +1

          10M needles a year isn't that much when you consider that's easily how easily many drinks and smokes are consumed on a weekend.

          • ssfps on 29/08/2024 - 01:38

            @cfuse: It's a lot of IV drug use, far more than a lot of people seem to assume because we don't see it in everyday working class life.

            • cfuse on 29/08/2024 - 13:42
              +1

              @ssfps: Is it though? How many times a week does a junkie shoot?

              As for people's assumptions, that's down to them being naïve. They need to pay more attention to what's happening around them.

    • payless69 on 27/08/2024 - 10:09

      More important than a condom?

    • DingoBlue on 27/08/2024 - 10:42
      +2

      Good idea. Does it last okay in the car?

      • Russ on 27/08/2024 - 11:20
        +2

        I'd like to know this too. I've measured 55 Celsius inside my car, that's way too hot for almost all medications.

        Where in a car can you store medications without them getting overheated?

      • DMFD on 28/08/2024 - 19:02
        +1

        Internet says OK up to 40c
        Oh internet, Teach these interneters.

    • samfisher5986 on 27/08/2024 - 12:03
      +5

      In a normal person's lifetime you'll likely need a defibrillator then Naloxone, and at least with a defibrillator you might be able to save a loved one rather then a stranger.

      That is unless you live in a really bad area but I've never seen or heard about people lying on the street passed out on drugs in Australia.

      • deventer on 27/08/2024 - 12:10
        +4

        One doesn't negate the need for the other and naloxone is cheap.

      • xmagic on 27/08/2024 - 12:34

        Yup, especially in countries where opioid is strictly controlled anyway.

        However an AED is simply too expensive for individuals to keep and maintain. City councils subsidise AED for businesses but nothing for individuals.

        • Ademos on 27/08/2024 - 21:54

          Not anymore. See CellAed

          • Russ on 27/08/2024 - 23:06
            +2

            @Ademos: All of the cheap AEDs I've seen have a non-replaceable 8-to-10-year lithium battery. Which means you throw it out every 8-10 years and buy another at full price. Which usually makes it about $100/year.

            I can't quickly see the specs of the CellAed battery, is it any different?

            • xmagic on 28/08/2024 - 13:08
              +2

              @Russ: That's what I gather from the concept of CellAED, not exactly a sustainable option economically. It has a 2-year shelf-life, with $600 investment and $200/2yr subscription.

              Besides there are reports indicate lower energy output from CellAED compared to other commonly available AED options, and may not be able to delivery the same outcome in comparison. Not sure if it's a bearable compromise for device in such a critical category.

    • Daabido on 27/08/2024 - 21:13
      +1

      I have one in the car, just so I can play God.

    • 2esc on 28/08/2024 - 08:27

      Surprisingly how many people dont even have a basic first aid kit.

  • M00Cow on 27/08/2024 - 09:29
    +16

    damn I thought it was Nasonex, just in time for spring

    • Mat_Lab on 27/08/2024 - 09:47
      +2

      lol

  • pandadude on 27/08/2024 - 09:34
    +4

    Should be a standard drug kept on every public bus and train.

      • deventer on 27/08/2024 - 10:30
        +16

        This is a terrible take. I urge you to look into and understand addiction better. This kind of response targeting individuals as having had a moral failure is so far from reality for most addicts as for the most it does not start from having tried opioids to get high in the first place.

          • deventer on 27/08/2024 - 11:12
            +7

            @GS9891: No, they are people who need help that goes well beyond naloxone. Just continuing to treat people in the throes of addiction as garbage is only going to end poorly for all of us. I for one would rather addicts be given a clean supply of something reliable they can use to taper off and kick the addiction. You can actually be an addict and still hold down a job just fine, but circumstances like needing to find drugs on the black market at black market prices lead to an increase in crime and less possibility to kick the addiction.

            I understand where your position is coming from, I used to think the same, that people who were addicts have only themselves to blame. It is classic abstinence-only education we were taught growing up, but it is misguided and things have only gotten worse.

          • Yorkshire-Man on 27/08/2024 - 11:50
            +2

            @GS9891: I hope someone you love never slips into addiction and needs one of these. Imagine losing the one you love the most because this wasn't available.

        • ssfps on 27/08/2024 - 14:03
          +2

          Do you feel the same way about pedophiles with strong impulses they can't control who go around molesting kids?

          Why do you believe understanding their internal struggle or mechanism of why exhibit the behavior somehow absolves them of personal responsibility, or somehow negates the costs on others?

          • illogicalerror on 02/09/2024 - 16:24
            +2

            @ssfps: How's things in your nice house and car over there? Having fun buying bargains?

            How about we take all of that away, put you in pain, remove your income and your opportunities, maybe add some trauma and inter-generational disadvantage… if you turn to drugs we'll compare you with a pedo.

            Seems fair.

            • ssfps on 08/09/2024 - 19:42
              +1

              @illogicalerror: Do you not understand analogy? Junkies and pedos are different but there are similarities in the destruction they can cause when fiending. Pedos often can't help it, it's an impulse, but they can choose to act on it or not, very similar to addiction-prone people.

              How's things in your nice house and car over there? Having fun buying bargains?

              How do you know I wasn't faced with the same problems but overcame them? So nobody has any strength of will or agency in their lives?
              Seems pretty fatalistic and negative to assume anybody that avoids turning to street drugs are doing so by pure luck or privilege.

      • M00Cow on 27/08/2024 - 10:32

        Yeah nah, society shouldn't have to stock opioid OD meds in every location just to cater to junkies.

        i agree with that part. probably should be part of any first aid kit that also stocks EpiPens. Otherwise it'll just mostly get thrown out unused.

      • Jolakot on 27/08/2024 - 10:37
        +3

        Not just for junkies, far more people than you know use opioids to manage chronic pain (especially for cancer), and the difference between the maximum safe dose and an overdose is just 1 pill. When you're taking different pills every 2 hours at different schedules, it's incredibly easy to accidentally double-up.

        • GS9891 on 27/08/2024 - 10:56
          -3

          I'd be amazed if those using legal opioids (in a legitimate fashion, not recreationally as a mere replacement for illicit drugs like every OD'ing Hollywood actor) make up more than an infinitesimal fraction of OD deaths. There's a reason they're pushing to have this crap mandatory in nightclubs, because 99.99% of its use cases will be for junkies.

          • deventer on 27/08/2024 - 11:03
            +5

            @GS9891: While in years gone by it probably was recreational use initially that started the addiction, since the advent of oxycontin in the mid-90s, by far and away most addiction in recent history started with the use of a prescription opioid painkiller gone awry. There is a reason Purdue Pharma got sued out of existence, unfortunately very little was done to help those already in the throes of addiction by this point and the black market has stepped in to take advantage instead, which has subsequently led to stronger and stronger opioids being trafficked, and often sold to unsuspecting consumers who thought they were getting something else.

            • Donmega123 on 27/08/2024 - 11:52

              @deventer: There is a fantastic book called romancing opiates which is very critical of heroin withdrawal (argues it's medically unserious, similar to a terrible cold, far more reflective of poor mental health). Roughly speaking the book argues that the concept both of opiates being this transcendental experience and the withdrawal of them being hellish was inherited from the romantic era and picked up by Hollywood. Worth picking up.

              • deventer on 27/08/2024 - 12:01

                @Donmega123: Thanks, I will look into it.
                I am skeptical because I am aware that people who suffer the worst of problems of addiction are already in the minority.
                So sure, for most people it is probably pretty straight forward, especially if you can taper off your prescribed medication before you run out. My understanding for the worst case scenarios is it really is more akin to one of the worst bouts of flu or gastro you could experience, but if you can just get your hands on enough to calm the physiological addiction (i.e. via safe supply) then you can get on with your day just fine.

                • Donmega123 on 27/08/2024 - 12:10
                  -2

                  @deventer: I've never really been satisfied that physiological addiction exists, I think it's way more primal than that. Brain want feel good make up reasons to justify ex post facto.

                  • deventer on 27/08/2024 - 12:19
                    +2

                    @Donmega123: I think part of the problem is that it doesn't for most people at the very least, but you can't put yourself in somebody else's shoes. I recall watching a doco where somebody had to go to extreme lengths to dilute their benzodiazepines to come off them completely at fractions of a % per period.
                    I also know of plenty of people prescribed opioid painkillers who were never given much more instruction than "take as needed" presumably with some instruction on maximums, but no care at all about how to taper off properly if/when taking them regularly.

                    Edit: I forgot to mention, from Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari: "The opposite of addiction isn't sobriety – it's connection"
                    I think there is a lot of truth in that which may complement what you're saying. I certainly don't think dehumanising people suffering from addiction is helpful.

                    • Donmega123 on 27/08/2024 - 12:32

                      @deventer: Ah I mean the medical industry is like any other, it's going to seek to justify itself and probably overstate it's own importance. Plenty of Afghanis smoke opium and don't write 800 page novels about the multifaceted hells of withdrawal. It's good to be circumspect. One crazy corollary that's hard for me to flippant about is how many drug addicts in the west were sexually abused as children.

                      • deventer on 27/08/2024 - 12:45
                        +1

                        @Donmega123: Better that we use the healthcare system, especially when some services can be provided for very little, than leave it up to the cartels to supply drugs, and have us spend inordinate amounts of budget on increasingly militarised federal and state policing, incarceration, and dealing with all of the ancillary crimes that increase as part of the problem: domestic violence, gang violence, etc.

                  • ssfps on 27/08/2024 - 14:12
                    +1

                    @Donmega123: A friend of mine died from benzo withdrawals, but i'm not sure the physiological action causing that can occur with opioid withdrawal too.
                    I agree with your point in general though, i've never really been convinced there is a hard deliniation between 'psychologically addictive' and 'physiologically addictive' - not only because our psychology and physiological mutually effect each other.

            • ssfps on 27/08/2024 - 14:08

              @deventer:

              While in years gone by it probably was recreational use initially that started the addiction, since the advent of oxycontin in the mid-90s, by far and away most addiction in recent history started with the use of a prescription opioid painkiller gone awry.

              You didn't argue against what he said at all.

              He didn't make a point about how they started out, he made a point about where they were currently at. i.e. How many of those ODing accidentally are at the start of their addiction journey on prescribed oxy, and how many are down the road when they're cut off and buying from elsewhere? I'd be curious to know.

          • macrocephalic on 27/08/2024 - 11:31

            @GS9891: Due to the nature of addiction, those people who take it for legitimate reasons end up becoming the people who take it excessively.

        • Ademos on 27/08/2024 - 21:55
          +2

          the difference between the maximum safe dose and an overdose is just 1 pill.

          Bullshit.

          • Jolakot on 28/08/2024 - 08:17

            @Ademos: By definition taking more than your maximum safe dose is an overdose, just like how a single drop will make a full cup spill

            • ssfps on 29/08/2024 - 01:56
              +1

              @Jolakot: I too measure my cough medicine with a picogram scale to avoid accidentally suffering an OD, because I don't understand context cues.

              • Jolakot on 29/08/2024 - 08:07
                +1

                @ssfps: I have no idea what your point is, but I'm glad to see you taking cough medicine seriously, can really do a number on your liver if you take too much.

      • TrulyUnicorn on 27/08/2024 - 10:40
        +4

        cater to junkies

        A junkie doesn't want to use naloxone, it's there to treat an overdose. Christ.

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