Naloxone saves lives after a heroin overdose, but does it also encourage addiction? To the Editor: In an effort to be balanced, the article notes that critics' opposition to naloxone is based on the premise that it gives drug users a safety net, allowing them to take more risks and seek higher highs, resulting in multiple overdoses. These claims are refuted by studies in New York, San Francisco and here in Connecticut of overdose risks, undertaken before widespread availability of naloxone, in which a strong predictor of an overdose was a previous nonfatal overdose. To date, no evidence has been presented that naloxone availability or use in response to overdoses increases risk-taking or overdose frequency. Instead, there is plenty of evidence that it saves lives and provides those individuals an opportunity to seek treatment. The critics' disparaging of the lifesaving benefits of naloxone is just another example of the stigmatization of those with the chronic disorder of opioid abuse that brands such individuals as unworthy of efforts to reduce their mortality. New Haven The writer is a professor at the Yale University School of Public Health. [end]
Naloxone saves lives after a heroin overdose, but does it also encourage addiction? To the Editor: The same arguments about encouraging more risk taking were made earlier about needle exchange programs to fight H.I.V., delaying their implementation by years. But when New York State stopped heeding the naysayers and did expand access to clean needles, H.I.V. infection rates in drug users, which had stood at 54 percent in 1990, fell to only 3 percent by 2012. Now state health officials call the formerly contentious practice "the one intervention which could be described as the gold standard of H.I.V. prevention." Let's not make the same mistake by spreading similarly baseless fears about naloxone. New York The writer is the author of "Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction." [end]
Naloxone saves lives after a heroin overdose, but does it also encourage addiction? To the Editor: You say naloxone "carries no health risk; it cannot be abused and, if given mistakenly to someone who has not overdosed on opioids, does no harm." In fact, like most drugs, naloxone can have adverse effects, most of which are mild, but some, such as severe hypertension, decreased platelet function, coma and death, are very significant. Severe hypertension and tachycardia can likely be exacerbated in patients who have taken amphetamines or cocaine in addition to opioids, causing heart attack or stroke. Fortunately, most overdoses treated with naloxone occur in young patients who tolerate side effects. However, I am concerned about propagating the myth that this drug is completely safe and thereby inadvertently adding a new game to the highs of addiction - get high, push the experience to near death, make sure naloxone is handy for reversal, and repeat. We may indeed see more complications if patients are using multiple rounds of opioids and naloxone. Milford, Conn. The writer is an anesthesiologist. [end]
Naloxone saves lives after a heroin overdose, but does it also encourage addiction? To the Editor: Re "A Lifesaver for Heroin Users, but No Cure for an Epidemic" (news article, July 31): As an emergency physician, I have personally administered naloxone and seen patients who would otherwise die from an opioid overdose be revived within seconds. Those who say that saving someone's life with naloxone will only foster addiction are being unscientific, inhumane and ill informed. We would never refuse an EpiPen to someone experiencing a peanut allergy for fear that it would encourage him to eat peanut butter. In Baltimore, we believe that naloxone should be part of everyone's medicine cabinet and everyone's first aid kit. That is why I issued a standing order that has made this medication available to all of the 620,000 residents in our city. We must make policy decisions based on science, not stigma. Addiction is a disease. We must treat it with the same urgency, humanity and compassion as we treat all diseases. Baltimore The writer is the Baltimore city health commissioner. [end]
Naloxone saves lives after a heroin overdose, but does it also encourage addiction? To the Editor: Some of those you interview make the case that people use naloxone to continue their pattern of pleasure-seeking behaviors, even to their own detriment. However, abuse of opioids is not an act of free will; it is an agonizing compulsion. A person with a substance abuse disorder is compelled to use even when he or she no longer feels pleasure from the act. I volunteer with the Needle Exchange Emergency Distribution to distribute naloxone, clean syringes and other harm reduction supplies to clients in the East Bay area. Tellingly, the article quotes Gov. Paul LePage of Maine saying that "naloxone does not truly save lives; it merely extends them until the next overdose." Perhaps if Governor LePage met our clients he would see that people with substance abuse disorders are as worthy of compassionate care as anyone with a chronic disease. Berkeley, Calif. The writer is pursuing a master's of public health degree at the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health. [end]
Naloxone saves lives after a heroin overdose, but does it also encourage addiction? To the Editor: Your article discusses two interpretations of the effect of Narcan, the brand name of naloxone. The moral hazard interpretation is that Narcan gives drug users a safety net, allowing some to overdose numerous times in safety. Advocates of Narcan, on the other hand, say it allows people to get into treatment, and there is no evidence that Narcan increases opiate use. Given this uncertainty, I find it difficult to understand how you can write: "There is no question that the nation's death toll from heroin and prescription opioids would be significantly higher without naloxone." It is at least logically possible that Narcan will eventually be seen to have been a wholesale mistake. WILLIAM VAUGHAN Jr. Chebeague Island, Me. [end]
Naloxone saves lives after a heroin overdose, but does it also encourage addiction? To the Editor: How could naloxone ever be considered a "cure for an epidemic"? Putting out a fire is not a cure for causes of fires. Sorry, there are no quick solutions to the addiction problem. But there are some steps we should take. Help addicts get services for the addiction and underlying mental health issues. Access to clinics is key. Yet clinics are fewer and fewer and access harder and harder. And, yes, give Narcan to first responders and addicts' families. Norwood, Mass. The writer is a psychiatrist. [end]
Naloxone saves lives after a heroin overdose, but does it also encourage addiction? To the Editor: Your article profiles a 44-year-old woman who has been revived seven times using the lifesaving drug Narcan. At what point does her own personal responsibility make her accountable for her own life? Our society and our health care system need to recognize that we can't solve everyone's problems all the time. Providence, R.I. [end]
PORTLAND, Me. - A woman in her 30s was sitting in a car in a parking lot here last month, shooting up heroin, when she overdosed. Even after the men she was with injected her with naloxone, the drug that reverses opioid overdoses, she remained unconscious. They called 911. Firefighters arrived and administered oxygen to improve her breathing, but her skin had grown gray and her lips had turned blue. As she lay on the asphalt, the paramedics slipped a needle into her arm and injected another dose of naloxone. [continues 1545 words]
We are writing to let The Sun know that we are not going to let our grandson's death be just another drug-related death. He was just a kid who got caught up the heroin-fentanyl epidemic and lost his life. On June 15, our 18-year-old grandson took heroin laced with fentanyl, got sick and died on Mountain Road in Pasadena. His body laid in plain sight for two days. Cars and people passed by and no one called to report his body. It was his father who found him and called 911. [continues 279 words]
Drug users report highest-ever rate of stimulant's use in study's history, which suggests need for change to harm-reduction resources Crystal methamphetamine use has climbed across British Columbia and is now on par with heroin use, according to a new provincewide survey of drug users. The finding suggests a need to reassess the availability of harm-reduction resources and supplies across the province, according to an epidemiologist behind the study. The survey, prepared by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, was distributed across 34 sites offering harm-reduction supplies and completed by 812 drug users. It builds on annual surveys dating to 2012 and paints a picture of substance-use trends among harm-reduction clients across B.C. Before these surveys, most knowledge of local drug trends was based on data from two major cities: Vancouver and Victoria. [continues 570 words]
Re "T.O. health board OKs safe injection sites" (July 5): Isn't it funny how marijuana laws are still being enforced when the federal government has said it is going to be legalized, yet, safe injection sites are in the process of being approved in Toronto? What if a police officer stops two people near one of the safe injection sites, one with pot and the other heroin? Who is arrested and who isn't? I appreciate that the marijuana dispensaries were acting outside the law but heroin users will now get a pass if council approves the sites. But to my knowledge there are still laws against the use and trafficking of controlled substances, including heroin. The timing of these two moves by the City of Toronto couldn't be better. Vince Rochford Bowmanville (It is a strange situation at the moment) [end]
At the same time Californians are preparing to vote on the legalization of adult marijuana use, the federal government is weighing whether pot should continue to be classified as a top-tier narcotic on par with heroin. Within a month, the Drug Enforcement Administration is expected to release a much-anticipated decision that could alter cannabis' ranking in the hierarchy of controlled substances - a formal listing that affects everything from medical research to taxing policy. Since the list was created in 1970, marijuana has been ranked in Schedule I - the most restrictive category - alongside heroin, LSD and peyote. The designation is reserved for drugs the DEA says have no proven medical use and are highly addictive. [continues 1204 words]
On June 20, The Day published a guest commentary by Jim Spellman of Groton, "Stopping heroin at the source," which contended that "two appropriate recommendations have been offered to counter the heroin crisis - treat it as an epidemic and counter it as a village." Left unclear was who determined that these are the two appropriate recommendations in all of Connecticut. But, on his first point, I will agree that the heroin crisis in our state should be treated as an epidemic. [continues 501 words]
MEXICO CITY - The drug that killed Prince has become a favorite of Mexican cartels because it is extremely potent, popular in the United States - and immensely profitable, American officials say. Law enforcement and border authorities in the United States warn that Mexican cartels are using their own labs to produce the drug, fentanyl, as well as receiving shipments from China. Then the cartels distribute the substance through their vast smuggling networks to meet rising American demand for opiates and pharmaceuticals. "It is really the next migration of the cartels in terms of making profit," said Jack Riley, acting deputy administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration. "This goes to the heart of the marketing genius of the cartels. They saw this coming." [continues 1293 words]
Editor's note: This is day one of a four-day series that examines the impact heroin is having on the community through the eyes of the addicts, their families, law enforcement and the groups that provide treatment. DECATUR Eric Buntain described the feeling of injecting heroin into his vein as "warm, euphoric, comfortable and relaxing: It feels great." About 30 seconds after injecting heroin, there's a surge of warmth coming from the low spinal area, a rush of sensation and an overriding sense of well-being. [continues 1448 words]
When it comes to the war on marijuana in Pueblo, pot proponents claim we should worry about "real" drugs like heroin and prescription drugs- not marijuana. My answer: We do worry. I believe making marijuana legal has only fueled heroin use. Fifteen years ago physicians and hospitals were told they weren't managing pain adequately. Health care responded. What followed was a national prescription opiate epidemic. The Center for Disease Control reports prescription opioid abuse leads to a 40-fold increase in heroin use. Yet Colorado opiate prescriptions per 100 residents have decreased (CDC 2014). Our state weighs in at 70, compared with 120 to 140 for the Rust Belt and southern states. [continues 209 words]
Number of Overdoses Rising As Cheaper Drug Gains Popularity, Experts Say VANCOUVER- For Hugh Lampkin, fentanyl's surge to all but replace heroin on the Vancouver drug scene calls to mind a curious image: a rainbow. "Traditionally, heroin comes in about four different colours," said the longtime drug advocate, describing a bland palette of beiges, browns and blacks. "Well now you're seeing multiple colours, like colours of the rainbow: green and pink and orange and white . . . Right away, when you see these colours that's a pretty good indicator that it's fentanyl that you're doing." [continues 344 words]
ANITA GUPTA first suspected that the Philadelphia heroin trade could be taking a deadlier turn months ago, when she saw overdose patients at Hahnemann University Hospital who didn't respond as they should have to the antidote drug emergency workers gave them. "The symptoms were worse than we were used to seeing," said Gupta, an anesthesiologist, pharmacist and pain specialist at Drexel University College of Medicine. "We were getting patients with symptoms of near-death, and often required multiple doses of the antidote naloxone." [continues 694 words]
Just after noon on May 3, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom stood in front of a well-dressed crowd at the Commonwealth Club - an "unusual coalition" of Republicans, doctors, environmentalists, and former cops, as one member put it - talking at length about marijuana. Specifically, the still-magnetic former San Francisco mayor and likely frontrunner for governor in 2018 railed about how much he hates the stuff. "I can't stand it," Newsom said. "I mean it. I don't want it in parks and playgrounds, I don't want my neighbors smoking it. I just don't like it." He took care to mention his position as a concerned father of four, as television cameras and reporters' microphones picked up every word. [continues 860 words]
