Naloxone Saves Heroin Addict from Overdose - Bill Proposed

A Staten Island police officer saved the life of an overdosed heroin addict last month using an up-and coming emergency treatment, according to a release by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

The emergency treatment, a nasal spray of the drug naloxone, reverses the effects of an overdone if administered in time, potentially saving the lives of many addicts.

According to the release, heroin-overdose related deaths have risen In New York City by an estimated 84 percent  since 2010, particularly in Staten Island, where the mortality rate for overdose is nearly 35 percent higher than the rest of the city.

In response to this, the city launched a program last Fall that trained and equipped 190 police officers to administer naloxone via nasal spray. The first reported case of the nasal spray's use in the field happened just last month, where the victim was reportedly saved from a near-fatal overdose thanks to the drug.

It should be said that naloxone is not entirely new. The Opioid Overdose Prevention Program in 2006 promoted the use of naloxone in ambulances and emergency rooms in New York and there have been over 650 overdose reversals since that time. Equipping officers with the life-saving nasal spray simply makes response times a little faster in situations where time is everything.

The death of award-winning actor and director Philip Seymour Hoffman recently reminded the nation of the cost of an overdose when emergency crews cannot respond in time. Hoffman died of a heroin overdose alone in his New York apartment just last week.

On Tuesday a new bill was proposed that would allow loved ones of addicts to be trained in the administration of naloxone. The drug, which has no apparent negative side-effects, would be released by prescription to guardians of at-risk addicts. Naloxone has been shown to even successfully reverse prescription pain-killer overdose, which often shares many if the dangers of an opioid overdose.

Naloxone is currently used for wide-scale emergency use in 15 states, with five of them having passed bills similar to the one proposed Tuesday.

You can read more about the proposed bill and current programs in the Febuary 6 DHMH press release.