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Battling opiate overdoses
I thoroughly enjoyed your recent articles on substance abuse in the June 13 issue of CMAJ, especially Kyle Stevens' essay [Commentary].1 I cannot help but think that if the narcotic antagonist naloxone was made readily available to heroin addicts and others as a harm reduction measure (perhaps as an expansion of a needle exchange program) there would be fewer deaths from opiate overdose. After all, most addicts would have little trouble subcutaneously or intravenously injecting naloxone into an unresponsive friend while awaiting a 911 response,2 and the drug would certainly not be used for recreational purposes. Indeed, this idea is being seriously explored in the addiction literature.3,4
D. John Doyle References
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