Debate Grows Over Public Administration of Narcan

[emt2359]

There is a growing push for EMTs, Police and the general public to be trained on how to administer Narcan to overdoses. I know some states already allow EMTs to administer it. What are your thoughts?

[Just Plain Ruff]

I'm for it but a little leary about giving this to EMT's with limited other resources to counteract the polypharmacy overdose. I am overwhelmed at work right now with other issues but my thoughts are that you have a polypharmacy overdose and you take away the opiates but you are left with the other drugs which may just be a bigger lifethreat than the opiates.

[Happiness]

There was apprehension when the AED's were placed in the public, guess this is along the same lines. I hope for first responders to receive the training, not so sure about the general public.

[Just Plain Ruff]

Yeah but AEDS don't cause a cardiac arrest patient to come up swinging when you take away their arrest.

[chbare]

What does the evidence show? I believe Massachusetts has gathered a large amount of data.

[paramedicmike]

This article touches on some of that evidence.

[island emt]

There was a movement years ago to give preloaded narcan to drug users and their family/ friends.

It was being handed out along with a needle exchange program.

Personally: I don't know how much harm nasal narcan could cause when dealing with OD's that are on the edge of death.

Yes I understand all the risks and dangers of bring them up to fast or too far, but when the options are more dead folks who might have been saved???????

My personal feeling is give them all the heroin they can smoke ,snort , inject , or shove up their arse. Cleans up the gene pool .

I know thats not PC , but what are ya going to do.

Problem is that folks are switching to heroin because it's cheaper and easier to get your hands on than other pharmaceuticals that are commonly abused.

stop the cartels that are bringing it into the country and solve the problem. I know too simplistic .

Get serious about closing the borders completely and stop the afghani's and others who hate us from making billions suppling the dope.

My Brother in law was murdered by an afghan intelligence officer because he was investigating afghan politicians high up in the govt food chain who are engaged in the drug trade.

Besides if we didn't have drug users arrested who would fill our prison systems??????

[island emt]

This article touches on some of that evidence.

My comment on that article is::: Forget any comments attributed to Porky Lepage , our esteemed gov.

His logic is that if those on the low end of the social spectrum die of overdose , then he won't have to pay for Mainecare treatment for them.

He doesn't give a rats behind for anyone needing public assistance and has at every turn attempted to remove them from the system.

He has made numerous statements to that effect in the past three years since he won with 37% of the vote.

He is brash , obnoxious and a bully , & the darling of the tea party.

He recently told the State's attorney General to go ahead and sue him for not releasing public documents of a report on the state welfare system that he hired an out of state company to the tune of almost a million $$$$$ no bid contract. Funny thing is that the company chosen for the no bid contract was a campaign donor of his.

[ERDoc]

In my old stomping grounds they did a trial where the county police were trained to give narcan (I believe they are all required to be EMTs). It was pretty successful and was continued. It has been expanded to allow BLS providers (including CFRs) to use it. I find it interesting that they were letting the cops play with it before the EMS providers but that was because the cops were always on scene before EMS and sometimes by a significant amount of time.

[tac57]

"Yeah but AEDS don't cause a cardiac arrest patient to come up swinging when you take away their arrest."

Done properly, naloxone should just restore resp drive. Give 0.4 mg im (for bls) at a time. You can always give them more.

For the public, why not make a naloxone auto-injector that comes in a 2 pack, each dose giving 0.4 mg. If one pen doesn't do it then give the other.