JTN: An advisory panel for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday voted unanimously to recommend that the agency make Narcan available for over-the-counter use.
Naloxone is currently a prescription-only drug used to treat opioid overdoses. Narcan is a brand-name nasal spray containing Naloxone.
The panel voted 19-0 to approve it for over-the-counter sales, determining there was little risk involved in expanding the drug’s availability. MORE
“don’t worry, I have narcan if we need it”
not only do they create ‘safe spaces’ for supporting addiction, now they are creating what is called a ‘false sense of security’ for users.
I begin to wonder if some might consider going to a ‘safe space’ to take some opioids and find out what all the media hype is about.
This will do nothing but increase usage, addiction, crime and death.
Good. I don’t currently know anyone on opioids but if I did I’d want some Narcan in my home med supplies and my car first aid kit.
FD-who? Unqualified nincompoops of Amerika?
While I understand it’s utility, the people most likely to need it, won’t have it at hand, nor have the time to run to the local drugstore when it is needed…
@diane reynolds — Please don’t lose sight of the fact that there are non-abusers who take opioids for legitimate medical pain control. These people sometimes make dosing scheduling errors that can be life threatening, or have unexpected drug interactions. They’re the ones I’d like to be prepared to help.
I’ve seen it available at the county courthouse, free for the taking. How does it get more “over the counter” than that?
Buzz kill.
Increased public access to drugs, gambling and prostitution. Hallmarks of a government in decline.
^^^ “@diane reynolds — Please don’t lose sight…l”
I’m a retired RN. That involved a ‘narc count’ at the start and end of every shift. I know narcan is effective in achieving a temporary reversal of opioid intoxication, with that originating from prescribed or casual use.
Casual use, though possibly addiction based, is a key word in my consideration here. Perhaps narcan should accompany prescribed opioids. In the case of a prescribed user, their competency, or that of the person administering, should a factor in the amounts prescribed. In the case of a casual, non-prescribed user, I would suggest directing them to rehabilitation before narcan is a necessity.
…yes..but…
…as you may know from previous posts, I do advocate for Narcan. To Uncle Al’s point, it is MUCH more common than you might think for geriatric patients with memory issues to overdose, so there’s that, if you want to consider a person’s “worth” before you graciously consent to save their life; but also, on the accidental side of things, you have children who get into their parents or grandparents’ legal drugs as well as parents who may kill their children with kindness by overdosing them after a children’s surgery out of sympathy for pain, or dose a child in pain with adult doses; or a child gets into Mom’s stash.
You can also get accidental poisoning, especially with Fentanyl, to rescuers treating Fentanyl patients and police handling irregular containers.
That’s just some of the “Accidentallys”.
…but what of the druggie?
You know, some idiot taking stuff to get high? Worthless, amirite?
…before you answer that, consider when you were a kid. Ever do anything that was BAD for you? Maybe not Horse, but pot, speed, bennies, dexies, Quaaludes, acid, or a “something” a “friend” offered you at a party and to this day you don’t know what it was? Ever “experiment” with anything in your youth, maybe beer before you were old enough, maybe something stronger? No? Well, good for you to be a shining example in all your fromative years, but MOST kids aren’t so lucky. MOST kids will try stuff to please a “friend”, to get laid, to fit in, etc., and often it isn’t a good idea. Should that first mistake become a death sentence if it can be prevented?
…but ni, YOU’RE talking about that scum of the earth, the habitual heroin user. Dirty, smelly, thieving hippie, cares nothing for his own life or for his family, that vile, self-centered drain on society that gets narced back to life three times a week only to do it again, huh? Let THAT guy die, right?
…let’s see what THIS guy has to say about that.
“So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”
-Jesus, John 8;7
…again, most people f up. Maybe drove drunk, maybe got high and made a baby, did something stupid that could get you in jail and keep you out of Heaven. Yes you have.
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”
Romans 3:23
I have too. I am an alcoholic despite not having touched it in decades. I was a drunk-driving, pants-pissing, drunken knife fighting blackout drunk that only a merciful God kept from killing himself and others. I say “AM an alcoholic” and not WAS even though I do not drink because that weakeness will be in me until I die, and so I must with the Lord’s help and grace guard against ever drinking again.
Did you SEE that?
“With the Lord’s help and grace”.
…I got a second chance. Didn’t deserve it, didn’t even particularly WANT it, but the Lord had things for me to do and put loving people in my way to make sure I lived to do them. I have since saved lives, saved jobs, married, had a family, and helped bring other people to the Lord.
None of which would have happened had someone just let a stinking drunkie lay passed out to drown in his own vomit.
None of which would have happened had the Lord not given me another chance.
…bad as MY experience was, heroin (and now Fentanyl) is worse. This literally rewires your brain to physically NEED it from the first dose with extreme pleasure if you get it and extreme pain if you don’t. It is wonderful at making a person not care about anyone or anything other than the next high. I’ve known users to sell their grandma’s TV to get high. They will kill and die for it, its that powerful.
And THAT was BEFORE Fentanyl.
…I saw things both in and out of the ambulance service that showed how stupid it can be. And Narcan CAN be used to facilitate it, in a way. I knew a husband and wife duo who took turns Narcing each other back (making your spouse codependent if she isn’t already happens a lot, too) until one day he messed up and did it in the driveway alone, leaving his 10 year old son to discover his twitching, still-warm body in the car too late later. One ambulance ride, futile resuscitation efforts, and a lot of tears later, I helped to carry his casket to his grave out of respect to his father, a good friend of mine who saved MY life once, and then I got to watch Grandpa comfort his 10 year old crying at his grave.
I didn’t love the dead addict. I didn’t really know him too well, though I like many tried to talk him down before. But I knew his father and I saw his son and I saw his mother and his wife and brother.
I didn’t love him.
But SOMEBODY did.
…do you remember though, that I said “but” at the beginning, a long time ago?
…see, the problem with making Narcan freely available is that there’s some things you need to know about it.
(cont.)
They didn’t show the same concern for individuals who had to spent a great deal of time and effort and in many cases had to drive half way across the State to purchase Goddamn Durmectin ir Ivermectin injectable to treat their livestock.
What it DOES is its a opiate antagonist. In the presence of NO opiate, it does nothing. In the presence of an opiate, it counters its action IMMEDIATELY, but NOT PERMINANTLY. This means that you go from having a passed-out, barely breathing druggie to a fully alert one (who may be puking) who is PISSED AT YOU FOR ENDING THEIR HIGH. You kind of need to know about BOTH of those things, that it is NOT definitive care and if they do NOTHING they may relapse later and still die, and also that they may be combative and you should be aware of that.
Additionally, it is less effective to not effective at ALL with Fentanyl, and if the addicts been drinking or taking other things it does NOT counteract THAT. You need to guard against vomiting no matter what, and unless you’re an assiduous medication insert reader I don’t know if you’ll actually be aware of that.
Still, on balance, there’s no reason to withhold it for any unknown down. At worst it does nothing, and at best it may save a life.
I am not in the business though of deciding if a life is WORTH saving. ALL lives were put here by the Lord and HE wants them ALL to have a chance to come back to him. Not being God, you and I do not know what that person’s destiny is, but as a decent human being youself you should not withhold a second chance at life from them if it is in your power to give it.
I saw no success stories, but I also didn’t follow my patients so unless they died later on my nights I do not know how God disposed them.
Maybe they died on the streets.
Maybe they killed in a botchd robbery.
But maybe they became a minister and led others away from King Heroin like one I know of locally.
Or maybe they became Mike Lindell, who was an addict before he became a pillow mogul, providing jobs for thousands.
I don’t know what will become of an addict, but neither do you.
I only know that I owe it to my Lord to give them a chance if I can.
And if Narcan can help, then God bless it.
Do as you think is best, yourself. Only you know your own capabilities and your own heart.
As for me, I will always error on the side of life.
The life that was given by the Lord.
I’m not against narcan, nor am I against saving the life of another through its use. The basis for its need is what concerns me most. It will become an OTC med and opioid use will continue to increase, as will the need for its use. Unfortunately.
and I do believe, as St. Augustine said: “every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”
one problem with narcan is that it might give a false sense of security. Some people are unaware of how strong the drug is when they consume it and think “my friends will have narcan avaialable if I overdose.” Only they may consume too much fentanyl or whatever and you will need 5-6 doses of narcan for the opioid drug to wear off. Then dying because there wasn’t enough narcan available.
diane reynolds ☑
FEBRUARY 16, 2023 AT 11:54 AM
…I don’t disagree with you and wasn’t responding to you, the eay it timed out just looked like I was ” …yes, but…” was in response to the question of should Naloxone be OTC.
You are right, folks shouldn’t think that it will save them always, or completely, because it won’t.
But to the extent it buys them the chance of a “come to Jesus moment”, its worth it.
You, diane, get it.
I just want everyone else to.
Fuck em.
Let them die.
They will always go back to the life.
Sorry, but once you o down the Fen Fen Road & Heroine its O V E R eventually.
Kcir FEBRUARY 16, 2023 AT 3:00 PM
If it saves just one catalytic converter it’s worth it to let them all croak.