Emergency life-saving medicine for drug users to become more widely available across North Yorkshire

Naloxone effectively buys time to get further treatment by counteracting the effect of opiates.

It is issued to people who use opiates, family members and institutions like hostels, which expect contact with drug users.

Since 2018, North Yorkshire Horizons, the specialist service that delivers drug and alcohol support for adults on behalf of the county council, has issued around 1,450 kits to clients using opiates, including codeine.

These can be administered either through injection or a nasal spray.

It is known they have been used more than 60 times, though the figure may be higher as some cases may have gone unreported, and will have helped to save residents whose lives have been in peril.

As the county council throws its support behind International Overdose Awareness Day on August 31 it has been announced the Naloxone programme is being extended, with the objective of reducing the risk of fatal overdose, to more people.

The council and partners, including North Yorkshire Police, are involved in wide-ranging work to help to prevent the loss of lives through drug use.

Drug users are offered a kit and those who have refused will be approached again with a fresh offer. It is hoped to get the kits to more outlets, including mental health workers who, experience has shown, are likely to find themselves in contact with drug users. Other key organisations, which may be first responders to an overdose, may also be included in future.

Naloxone is not a “cure” for an overdose but reverses the effects of opiates, which allows time to seek full medical attention.

North Yorkshire County Council executive member for health and adult services, Cllr Michael Harrison, said: “North Yorkshire Horizons have been very active in getting Naloxone into the parts of the community where it is most needed in recent years.

“Thankfully, it is easy to administer and we know it has saved the lives of residents, so the next job is to get it issued even more widely.

“It provides time for emergency services to arrive and for further treatment to be given. That time can be vital.

“Every death from an overdose is preventable and we are determined to do everything possible to prevent them happening.

“International Overdose Awareness Day is an important event which focuses attention on this issue, not just for opiates but for other drugs and alcohol, and we fully support the motives of the campaign.

“We are doing lots of things in North Yorkshire, with our partners, to try to reduce deaths linked to overdoses and Naloxone is a very effective tool to help us do that.”

Recent statistics show drug overdose poisonings and deaths increased nationally by six per cent last year, part of an ongoing trend that has taken deaths to the highest since records began. In North Yorkshire’s figures were down slightly from previous year and the North Yorkshire Horizons service and other partners are working hard to try to minimise the ongoing risk.