Support Narcan
How a simple medication can minimize the strain on your local hospitals, EMS, police, and legal systems.
What is Narcan?
Naloxone, also known as Narcan, is a medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) designed to rapidly reverse opioid overdose. It is an opioid antagonist – meaning that it binds to opioid receptors and can reverse and block the effects of other opioids, such as such as heroin, morphine, and oxycodone.
Types of Opioids
Natural Opiates
- Opium
- Morphine
- Codeine
Semi-synthetic Opiates
- Heroin
- Hydromorphone
- Hydrocodone
- Oxycodone
Fully Synthetic Opiates
- Fentanyl
- Methadone
Opioid Use Disorder
Opioid use disorder is a disease that will affect all facets of a person’s life like:
- Reduce the ability to maintain stable housing
- reduce the ability to maintain healthy relationships
- create issues of shame and cause withdrawal from life and responsibilities
- result in an individual to prioritize substance use over everything else
- Reduce the ability to maintain stable housing
- reduce the ability to maintain healthy relationships
- create issues of shame and cause withdrawal from life and responsibilities
- result in an individual to prioritize substance use over everything else
It Could Be Your Loved One
How Narcan Works
By being an opioid antagonist – it binds to opioid receptors and can reverse and block the effects of other opioids, such as heroin, morphine, and oxycodone.
Protecting Valued Lives
By knowing the symptoms of a possible overdose, you can protect those that are in your community.
Look for indicators like decreased level of consciousness, pin point or dilated pupils, sweatiness, unconsciousness, decreased respiratory rate, and cardiac arrest.
If you suspect an overdose
DON’T PANIC – try to wake the person by yelling his/her name and rubbing the middle of the chest with knuckles (sternal rub)
Kentucky’s Good Samaritan Law
A major barrier to saving many lives is the simple failure of bystanders to summon medical assistance out of fear of legal consequences. Kentucky law KRS 218A, encourages those present at an overdose to do the right thing and call fro help and stay with the overdosed person.
It does so by providing immunity for drug possession and use offenses when seeking medical assistance for overdoses. This protects to police, firefighters, EMS, other first responders and others from needle sticks and other infectious devices.
It does not protect those with outstanding warrants, probation or parole violations, or other non-drug related crimes.
A major barrier to saving many lives is the simple failure of bystanders to summon medical assistance out of fear of legal consequences. Kentucky law KRS 218A, encourages those present at an overdose to do the right thing and call fro help and stay with the overdosed person.
It does so by providing immunity for drug possession and use offenses when seeking medical assistance for overdoses. This protects to police, firefighters, EMS, other first responders and others from needle sticks and other infectious devices.
It does not protect those with outstanding warrants, probation or parole violations, or other non-drug related crimes.
Why You Should Support Narcan
An overdose that causes an interruption in breathing can be lethal to those experiencing it. This is life threatening to the person it may be happening to and it also causes a strain on many aspects of your community. It uses the time and resources of police and emergency medical services (EMS), local hospitals, the legal system, and the people around them. By reversing the symptoms of overdose with Narcan, you can save the life of the person as well as reduce harm to your community.
Narcan is safe to use in infants, children, adults, and seniors as well as pets. A patient does not have to be breathing for Narcan to work. There are no known drug interactions and has no significant side effect profile. It may cause dizziness, tiredness, flushing, and irritability but, these may be related to withdrawal of opioids from the system as opposed to the Narcan itself.
Narcan only works on opioids and is not a treatment for opioid use disorder. It is also not addictive and has no psychoactive effects. Giving Narcan to someone not experiencing and opioid overdose is usually harmless but, may produce immediate withdrawal symptoms.
You can get Narcan from a physician, pharmacy, Pathways To Go Mobile Unit, Pathways Regional Prevention Center, HEALing Communities Study in Boyd, Carter, and Greenup counties.
KY ASAP does not provide or sell treatment services or products. It is only for awareness and education purposes.