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Sunday, August 13. 2023

Narcan (Naloxone) is now OTC


It can't hurt to have some in your car


Yes, it works on fentanyl too. Not on meth. 

Posted by Bird Dog at 08:34 | Comments (29) | Trackbacks (0)

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You have to help me out with this one: Given that my wife and I do not use (much less abuse) opioids, and that we don't know anyone who abuses opioids, why would we want to keep Narcan in the car?
#1 Hairless Joe on 2023-08-13 09:23 (Reply)
Same reason to know CPR
#1.1 BD on 2023-08-13 09:52 (Reply)
Not the same at all. Narcotics OD is self-inflicted, so TS. A heart attack or similar is not. One life is worth saving, the other not so much. Let natural selection take its course for the self-inflicted OD punks.
#1.1.1 Ron Snyder (Link) on 2023-08-13 11:10 (Reply)
Perhaps more practically, the risk to the individual providing aid is real: those using are likely to be disease carriers and unpredictable in behaviour. They are using volatile and powerful drugs. It’s not unlikely that they or others around them could become or already be violent. They won’t thank you for intervening.

I think the advice to be ready to give aid to an unknown drug abuser showing signs of overdose is very bad indeed.
#1.1.1.1 Annie p on 2023-08-13 13:25 (Reply)
I honestly want to help people, anyone who needs help. I have seen the videos where an overdose addict gets the Naloxone by the police or paramedics and wakes up and say he's fine and doesn't want treatment and immediately goes to get more dope because you destroyed his high by saving his life. So, is this helping people? If it were my family or friends I would do anything I could to save their lives but I have family and friends that do drugs or alcohol to excess and they don't want your stinking help unless it is money. So, really, how is this "helping" someone? IF they pass a law that requires that anyone given Naloxone must spend the next 30 days incarcerated or the next 90 days in treatment, no exceptions, no other way out, then I would be for this treatment. Otherwise let nature take it's course. And special note to police that might want to help a felon who you have in custody who is OD'ing; uncuff him and walk away or you get the Chauvin treatment.
#1.1.1.2 OneGuy on 2023-08-13 16:05 (Reply)
That's a great look you have going, there.

Today there was a news story about a police officer at a traffic stop that was exposed to fentanyl and keeled over, and was saved by Narcan. He would have died. Was that a life worth saving? How about a kid that gets pranked with a spiked little something? How about other collateral damage, all of those flushable too? Nice.

Now that it's OTC, I might just get a few and keep one in the truck First Aid Kit - thanks for the heads up.
#1.1.1.3 Aggie on 2023-08-13 19:41 (Reply)
So by that standard, if the heart attack happens to some obese person whose lifestyle choices made him a prime candidate for that acute MI, will you refuse to do CPR or call paramedics because he brought it on himself?

Or when some guy passes you on the road, and around the next bend you see him in the ditch, would you drive right past without even checking on him? Serves him right, after all. He chose to drive faster than you.

Or your neighbor falls off his roof, you're going to stay in your living room watching? He was the fool who climbed up there in the first place.

Who made you God, such that you decide whose life is worth saving?

Look, I get it. I'm not a fan of very many people on this planet and think it should hurt when you do something stupid. I can be pretty inflexible and heartless when it comes to taking personal responsibility--ask my kids.

But even I wouldn't be so arrogant as to think I should judge someone I didn't know to be unworthy of living because they stupid choices.

I usually like and agree with your comments, but this one... not so much.
#1.1.2 Nonna Mouse on 2023-08-13 16:27 (Reply)
Response for Ron, not BD
#1.1.2.1 Nonna Mouse on 2023-08-13 16:29 (Reply)
Tell that to Jordan Neely.
#1.1.2.2 JustMe on 2023-08-13 16:42 (Reply)
Someone you know uses them. Either in your family, your neighbor, at church, or work there is someone you know who uses them. Everyone is at risk of touching fentanyl accidentally.
#1.2 jack walter on 2023-08-14 07:07 (Reply)
Bird Dog, where do you live that is such a drug-infested hellhole?
#2 Ann K. on 2023-08-13 13:35 (Reply)
I can't remember ever having driven past a person who has OD'd on drugs. Ever.

Wow.

Never in a hundred years would it ever have occurred to me to store such an item in my pickup.

Wow.

We must live on different planets.
#3 feeblemind on 2023-08-13 14:16 (Reply)
I would put it in the category of being a blue city prep item. A red country prep item would be a tourniquet for chain saw accidents or perhaps snake bite.
#4 indyjonesouthere on 2023-08-13 14:30 (Reply)
Nope. It's just as much of a scourge in red rural America. If not more so.

Keep both the tourniquet and the narcan, you never know when you might save a life.

But fercrissakes, don't put a tourniquet on a snakebite. You're almost certainly going to do more harm than good.
#4.1 Nonna Mouse on 2023-08-13 15:32 (Reply)
above the snakebite ... slow the movement of poison
#4.1.1 indyjonesouthere on 2023-08-13 18:04 (Reply)
Nope. Does not work. Hasn't been standard practice for 30+ years.
#4.1.1.1 Nonna Mouse on 2023-08-14 03:46 (Reply)
About 99 percent of drug use in rural areas is in college towns or on the rural outskirts of blue cities. While living in Indiana it became well known that a rural county had a well know drug problem but it turned out to be next to Louisville. Druggies hang out next to the source. I lived close to a small college town with rather well off students. Drug issues. There are drugs in red states but like violent crime, it is not hard to find the source. Rural areas don't provide enough anonymity. Cities and college campuses do.
#4.1.2 indyjonesouthere on 2023-08-13 18:22 (Reply)
You’re at the C-store fueling your car (or charging it, ha) and somebody at the next island starts freaking out because their pally in the passenger seat has stopped breathing. They think it’s an OD.

Wouldn’t it be great to have an antidote handy and save a life?

Doesn’t that sound more virtuous than fronting off about bad choices and letting them die?

Or pretending that nobody in your effete neighborhood ever uses drugs, that this is just a problem only “those people” might face?
#5 foxmarks on 2023-08-13 14:36 (Reply)
Exactly. I know of 3 overdose deaths in my social circle, adult children of friends. All in their 20s, all from families with money and a measure of status. It's happening closer to you than you think. "Those people" are people you know.

And not to change the subject, but it's absolutely flooding into the country across the non-existent southern border. Shut that down and you're a long way to fixing the problem.
#5.1 Nonna Mouse on 2023-08-13 16:46 (Reply)
How about carrying an Epipen for someone having an allergic reaction? Sure, it's $650 for a two pack. But someone's life might depend on it.
Funny how expensive saving the allergic it but how cheap to save a drug addict.
#5.2 jimmymcnulty on 2023-08-13 19:42 (Reply)
Thanks for the info. I would like to be able to save a life if I could. That drug user is a fellow human being and a child of God according to my faith. A child, sibling, maybe a parent of someone. Could have been me or a friend when I was younger and dumber. If I’m going to have it on hand, I’d better watch a video on how to use it. I don’t think my memory of Pulp Fiction will do much good
#6 Midwestern reader on 2023-08-13 14:43 (Reply)
Actually, a good memory of Pulp Fiction will do much more harm. IF that was ever a real procedure, it was 30+years ago.
'Bringing in the Dead' has a more accurate portrayal but that is an IV push. What is being offered to the public is a nasal spray or a muscular injection.

Know that Narcan's effect is temporary and the opiod last longer.
If they don't get to the ER fast, the narcan wears off and they stop breathing again.
#6.1 Hayden Goseek RN on 2023-08-13 21:02 (Reply)
There is a meme going around that shows a starving African toddler with the label "For just $19 a month you could feed this starving child whose father helped kill off all the white farmers and now there is no food." If you are a liberal or stupid, but i digress, this tugs at your heart strings.

I am reminded of the liberal woman in Sweden who took in an African (illegal) immigrant who rewarded her kindness/incredible stupidity by raping her, killing her with a machete as she begged for her life and cutting her up into pieces to make it easier to dispose of her body. But, hey, she really wanted to help people in need.
#7 Anon on 2023-08-13 16:37 (Reply)
Nonna Mouse: It's just as much of a scourge in red rural America.

As you correctly point out, the drug problem affects both urban and rural communities.

Urban–Rural Differences in Drug Overdose Death Rates, 2020: In 2020, the age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths was 28.6 per 100,000 standard population in urban counties and 26.2 in rural counties.

Nonna Mouse: And not to change the subject, but it's absolutely flooding into the country across the non-existent southern border.

Many rural addicts use prescription drugs, such as pushed by Purdue. Methamphetamines are often manufactured domestically. Imported fentanyl has been the source of an outbreak of overdoses, but most of that is carried by U.S. citizens through legal ports of entry.

DEA: "the most common method employed {by Mexican cartels} involves smuggling illicit drugs through U.S. {ports of entry} in passenger vehicles”.
#8 Zachriel on 2023-08-13 22:03 (Reply)
Addicts will use whatever they can get their hands on, prescription or illicit. This is not news.

Purdue hasn't been a factor in any of this for years, genius.

Meth is not what we're discussing, since Narcan is ineffective against it. Consider reading for comprehension, you just might learn something. Doubtful, as you're kind of thick, but hope springs eternal.

The border is wide open, drugs and illegal aliens are coming across unchecked, and the DEA has been utterly ineffective and mendacious since it's founding in 1973. Your citation is as meaningless as everything else you post here.

Now run along, grownups are talking.
#8.1 Nonna Mouse on 2023-08-14 04:09 (Reply)
Nonna Mouse: Purdue hasn't been a factor in any of this for years, genius.

Many of today's opioid addicts became addicted during the prescription drug crisis.

Nonna Mouse: The border is wide open, drugs and illegal aliens are coming across unchecked

As already pointed out, most opioids are smuggled into the U.S. by citizens through legal ports of entry. The number of people crossing the border illegally while carrying opioids is negligible.
#8.1.1 Zachriel on 2023-08-14 08:15 (Reply)
Look everyone! The guy who didn't get hugged enough by his mom needs more attention.
#8.1.1.1 Nonna Mouse on 2023-08-14 09:13 (Reply)
Blaming this on prescription drugs was always phony. It was a legal ploy by trial lawyers to collect billions and destroy an industry and harm citizens.
#8.2 OneGuy on 2023-08-14 10:31 (Reply)
Unless you can keep it cool , don't leave it in the car .
#9 treefroggy (Link) on 2023-08-14 14:12 (Reply)

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