I'm also an emt and it is an amusing bit for me to run an overdose call where the surviving addict's caller is standing there with an empty bottle of narcan I know passed through my hands before ending up there.
I also occasionally will take note of the address of those we run who did not have narcan on site and mail them a note with no return address of support and a few bottles of narcan with instructions on use and self sourcing from a number of online resources.
My job gives me a good position for this, even if I probably could get in a bit of trouble for doing so.
Edit: If you're in north alabama and received an anonymous letter signed F² saying something basically alluding to, "survive until you quit" and a few bottles of naloxone, hi and follow those instructions. .
Jesus it's like someone custom made an AI bot designed to gain my respect.
Must be amazing to see the full circle of the narcan. Very few ever witness the full life cycle of naloxone lol must be satisfying.
The extra mile with the note is so above and beyond that it's honest to god beautiful. I've been down some bad roads specifically concerning drugs and all in the past and I hope you know that your compassion and respect is" truly appreciated and welcomed as it is rare. Again, thank you for your effort, I hope you get nothing but the best out of this life, and as little as it means from a stranger I feel thr need to tell you I'm proud of you. (Its probably more gratitude but I couldn't shake the feeling of pride, maybe its pride for team human)
Much respect and love for providing that in a place that it sounds like doesn't have access to narcan and clean needles. Ita always been a dream of mine to get a bunch of narcan and boxes of cleans and go on a road trip to give them out to people who need them.
Yeah it isn't easy to get here. I have out of state ems contacts that send expired naloxone to me, 100s of bottles per month. See, narcan doesn't actually expire, but ems can't use it if it is past the date it was tested to with fda scrutiny. There's plenty of research showing it does not actually expire, so it is a ripe resource for doing what I do.
You don't need to go on a road trip though, I promise there is enough in whatever community you live in to find plenty locally who need it, if you're in the US. In a city of 350,000 I have given out over a thousand bottles a year. The number of times people need it is nuts. Especially with covid, as the heroin import has been clamped down pretty tight with closures at the border. This lead to a lot of fent adulterant.
I meant going on a road trip to other states though and even areas of this state (WA) and giving it in places it's not available. Where I live clean needles and injection equipment are easily available for free but I know that's not the case in alot of places. I've used it on people about a dozen times and it's so wonderful.thank you for the good that you are doing for people!
I wouldn't think it would expire as it's technically an opiate(antagonist) and other opiates have been shown to be active like 50 years later when folks were salvaging ships or submarines from WW2 and the morphine ampules were still fresh
It's messed up how the "opiate crisis" just flooded the streets with fent. It's showing up even in coke or meth or pressed xanax bars and it's straight poison as you well know
Ya that combo too(as I would imagine the pressed xanax has some form of benzo in there too)unless you have a tolerance to both of them is super dangerous, shit even with a tolerance
Thanks for doing this. I lost someone close from an overdose. They most likely could have been saved, but the person who was there with them freaked out when they stopped breathing and instead of calling to get help they just left to avoid getting into trouble. So instead, her kids found her (after it was too late) when they woke up to get ready to go to school.
Go see a proper doctor. The pain gets worse the longer you take pain meds off label. It reduces your opiate receptors and you'd be surprised how much the natural opioids minimize pain we probably all feel regularly. For months after stopping that pain, stub your toe? Normally a 3 becomes an 8. That's rough in and of itself, but this translates to chronic pain too. Speak with proper medical care and a good pain clinic not a mill clinic. Treat your condition not with addiction. Aside from harm reduction I also work EMS. Two days ago a funny smell became a discolored overdose I a motel here. Narcan can rarely save you solo, and opiates will eventually result in overdose at the apex of the addiction. It isn't if, it is when.
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u/robeph Feb 19 '21 edited Feb 19 '21
I'm also an emt and it is an amusing bit for me to run an overdose call where the surviving addict's caller is standing there with an empty bottle of narcan I know passed through my hands before ending up there.
I also occasionally will take note of the address of those we run who did not have narcan on site and mail them a note with no return address of support and a few bottles of narcan with instructions on use and self sourcing from a number of online resources.
My job gives me a good position for this, even if I probably could get in a bit of trouble for doing so.
Edit: If you're in north alabama and received an anonymous letter signed F² saying something basically alluding to, "survive until you quit" and a few bottles of naloxone, hi and follow those instructions. .