If you don’t have a dose of Narcan in your home, purse, or possibly car, order some now.
If you are in Alabama, it’s available for free from a Jefferson County Department of Health site by mail after watching a short video.
Narcan is a drug, provided in a single-shot nasal inhaler, that can block the body’s uptake of opioids. If someone collapses from an overdose, a dose of Narcan will typically bring them back to consciousness and breathing within a couple of minutes. If that wasn’t why they collapsed – it won’t do anything at all. There is no downside to having taken it.
There is currently a lot of fentanyl in the US, which is currently the primary cause of opioid overdose. Overdoses killed over 1000 people in Alabama in 2020 (over 3000 in Tennessee), with the provisional numbers for 2022 higher than that (1394 and 3786, respectively). Besides people purposely using illicit drugs, there are possibilities of accidental or intentional contamination of other drugs, food, or drink.
I just ordered a dose to have around, just in case I see someone collapse. I’ll keep it in the car until it gets hot out again. Here’s the article that inspired me to put in the order and write this post.