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A program based in St. Catharine’s is helping a vulnerable part of the population. Drug overdoses are on the rise due to an increase in the popularity of Opioids like Fentanyl, but Streetworks Niagara has the antidote. It’s called Naloxone and Streetworks is putting it where it’s most effective – in the hands of drug users.
Walking past a St. Catharine’s apartment building is bittersweet for Shawn Booth. “It was very bad. She was blue, She wasn’t breathing, It was critical.” It’s where he gave a young woman a life saving injection of Naloxone after she overdosed on Fentanyl laced heroin. “This overdose was very scary because usually when you give them the first administration of the Naloxone, they snap out of it right away. With this one here, it didn’t seem like it was going to work.”
It did work, making hers one of seven lives Shawn has saved using his Naloxone kit. He was previously involved in the drug scene and got the kit from Streetworks after seeing too many close calls. Drug users often refuse to call 911 for fear of arrest.
Since the program began two years ago, 277 kits have been distributed in the community. 125 of those have been used to prevent a death by overdose. Anyone who has used Opioids in the last six months is eligible for a kit. An outreach worker like Talia Storm will train them how to use it. “First and foremost the training is a lot about prevention so how to prevent an overdose in the first place and then we do talk about how to inject the Naloxone and how to respond to an overdose if it happens.” Naloxone only works on opioids. “Once it’s injected it will go into the brain and kick the opiate off of the opiate receptors and take its place. And that’s what restores the basic body functions like breathing.”
Without the antidote, it can take only minutes before brain damage or death. “It’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. I mean, you could save a life..”
Streetworks advises people to call an ambulance before administering Naloxone or at the very least afterward. Its effects wear off within about an hour and a half and if the user still has opioids in their system, they could have a second overdose.
