Hi my name is jonah i’m a pharmacist and i’m holding in my hand a naloxone kit that i got from a pharmacy here in the city of thunder bay uh naloxone is an antidote uh for opioid drugs so uh an antidote of course is anything that reverses the effects of a poisoning and an opioid overdose is really a poisoning of uh of a type of drug called an opioid and there’s
A lot of different kinds of opioids uh there’s uh common ones such as codeine that you find in tylenol three your tylenol twos morphine hydromorphone and there’s real potent opioids uh such as fentanyl which is available uh in the form of a patch prescription wise but is also uh found illicitly on the street it’s also methadone suboxone and even heroin those
Are all types of opioids naloxone will reverse the effects of opioids and if a person’s having an opioid overdose opioids in high high doses can cause someone to stop breathing and they can die naloxone will reverse that naloxone does not work on drugs like cocaine crystal meth lsd for instance those are all drugs that are not opioids they’re different they’re
A different type of drug however i do recommend uh my patients uh if they see somebody that that may have overdosed on cocaine because they can see cocaine uh say on the table when the person’s incapacitated to still give naloxone because a lot of the illicit drugs on the street now are cut with opioids such as fentanyl so that means that there’s fentanyl in the
Cocaine or there’s fentanyl in the crystal meth and uh and then of course the the overdose may be from the opioids as opposed to the cocaine itself i hope that makes sense so if we see a person incapacitated in any form of illicit drug laying around i do recommend giving naloxone and even before giving it call 9-1-1 that’s so important the first step to call 9-1-1
Uh another reason why we call 9-1-1 is even though this medicine works and it works really well over 95 of the time uh uh it’ll reverse the effects but it doesn’t last long naloxone only lasts about like 30 minutes so the person may uh come out of the overdose but then go back in if 9-1-1 isn’t called so 9-1-1 is imperative if we think somebody has had an overdose or
Even if someone is just laying unconscious uh breathing or not uh they should be called so naloxone’s very simple to use uh uh most naloxone now uh is a nasal spray uh so a naloxone kit will come with two nasal sprays i can show it up here a little closer they look like that i have a fake one here uh right here it looks the same and you can see the plunger in the
Middle so it’s very simple to use if someone’s incapacitated it just goes in either one of the nostrils in a quick spray in uh i’m going to warn you now if if if you give naloxone to a person who is indeed having an opioid overdose uh you you are going to reverse the effects of those opioids and in a lot of cases when you do that the person goes into a state of
Withdrawal and withdrawal states can be pretty uh pretty ugly a person can can uh be sick uh or or actually even be angry because they don’t know that they were they were in a state of overdose and when you reverse it there they go into a state of withdrawal and in a sense you may have taken away their high so they can get a little upset as well however 911 should be
On its way if you called ahead of time um where do you get these things well um a lot of the health centers in the area have them uh but honestly the easiest way to get your hands on naloxone kit is just go to the pharmacy and all you need is your health card uh pharmacies carry these things and they are able to build the uh the ontario government uh just by showing
Your health card uh they will give you a brief little training on how it works and what to watch for uh which is a good thing uh but yeah if if you um do even if you get prescriptions for like town all threes or or or even stronger opioids or if you have a family member who may be getting those or if you have a family member that’s struggling with an addiction you
Want to get your hands on on a naloxone kit because you never know if or when you want to use it and if the person is if you find a person that is incapacitated and you think might be an overdose having one of this one of these could very well save their life uh the drugs that are out on the street right now are very potent very dangerous drugs and uh everywhere
From coast to coast in canada the overdose rates are going higher and higher and fatalities are going higher and higher these naloxone kits are lifesavers so again if you know of anybody that’s struggling with addiction or you yourself are struggling with addiction you want to get your hands on one of these just go to your pharmacy and grab when all you need is your health card thanks
Transcribed from video
Naloxone By Dilico Anishinabek Family Care