A trial giving family members and friends of heroin users a drug to prevent overdoses has been hailed a success, and may even reduce overall heroin use, researchers say.
The WA Peer Naloxone Project trained users and family members how to administer naloxone, which is used in emergency medicine to reverse the effects of opiates.
The National Drug Research Institute said of 153 people trained, 32 of them reported they had saved lives with naloxone.
The Institute’s Professor Simon Lenton said the findings showed the program should be continued and expanded.
“Naloxone’s been used in emergency medicine for over 40 years,” he said.
“Over the last couple of decades there’s been increasing calls for this drug to be made more widely available for people that use drugs like heroin, and their family members and friends.
“It’s a remarkably safe drug and the evidence is that this group of people can administer it safely, we had very few reports of adverse consequences and they were extremely minor things.”
The WA Peer Naloxone Project is funded on a yearly basis — its current funding is at the same level as last year… Read More>>
Source: ABC
