In a move similar to that undertaken earlier this year in Lanarkshire, Scotland, health authorities in Boston, Massachussets are planning to trial a program that will see heroin addicts be given a supply of a heroin antidote, Naloxone, in case of an overdose.
According to the Boston Globe, the trial, which will start in the Fall (Autumn) and last for a year, is being undertaken to combat an increase in drug-related deaths which has in large part been blamed on stronger and more plentiful heroin. This trend cannot have been helped of late by batches of heroin lined with fentanyl hitting the streets with deadly effects.
Naloxone, which is administered either via an injection or absorbed through the nose, is a very effective opioid antagonist that acts very quickly on those who overdose on heroin, even if they are comatose. The argument for giving it directly to heroin addicts is that the delay in medical help coming could be lethal.
Authorities hope that about 100 addicts will be signed up within the first six months of the trial. To get an emergency kit - if they first rejected encouragement and assistance to seek treatment - the relevant addicts would be given instructions in how to use naloxone; although in actuality someone else would have to administer it. As with another recent proposed trial of giving nalaxone to addicts in Glasgow, Scotland, opponents of it say that it can only just encourage more heroin use by supplying a safety net.
