Keys, phone, naloxone: In downtown Ottawa, the antidote to opioid overdoses has become an item some people won’t leave home without - eviltoast

Since the congregation took naloxone training in March, there’s been seven outside St. Albans. But that number is quite modest. At the drop-in centre beneath the church, where some of Ottawa’s most afflicted seek daytime refuge once the overnight shelters close, they’re doing at least one [naloxone application] a day.

  • JoYo 🇺🇸@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    hell yah, i keep one in my car and one in my home.

    if i had an easy source of epipens id do the same with those too.

    since when is being prepared a sign of doomerism?

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    That morning, a man burst through the doors of St. Albans church in downtown Ottawa, like a bolt of lightning through an otherwise quiet Sunday service, shouting, “Someone’s overdosing!”

    Ms. Alie, who is neither a doctor nor an expert in overdoses, jumped to her feet and rushed outside carrying six doses of naloxone, the drug that works like an antidote to opioids.

    Ms. Alie and her fellow parishioners had recently taken lessons on how to bring a person back from the brink; how to administer life-saving naloxone to someone overdosing on opioids.

    Drug users who frequent a drop-in centre in the basement of St. Albans began arriving not just incapacitated from the opioids, but also bleeding from the mouth.

    As Ms. Alie called 911, two other people began administering her naloxone to the unconscious man, using small dispensers designed for spraying it up the nose, for fast absorption.

    At the drop-in centre beneath the church, where some of Ottawa’s most afflicted seek daytime refuge once the overnight shelters close, they’re doing at least one revival a day.


    The original article contains 965 words, the summary contains 177 words. Saved 82%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • Woofcat@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    It’s crazy that without these drugs these folks would all be willing to give up their life for a high.

      • Woofcat@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Sure, but people quit addictions all the time. Smoking is on a massive decline, drinking too. Somehow the drug that can kill you in an instant is so popular that churches are handing out kits to save them. Insanity.

          • Woofcat@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            Meh, opioid addiction is a waste of our time. We should let them figure it out themselves. They’re all adults.

              • Woofcat@lemmy.ca
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                1 year ago

                I think you don’t understand it. These people made a choice to start using drugs and got addicted. It sucks but they made that choice.

                Not sure why the rest of society needs to pay for their shitty decisions.

                • nyan@lemmy.cafe
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                  1 year ago

                  Fundamentally, opioids are painkillers. Some of these people got hooked because their doctors prescribed them these drugs. Others may have been self-medicating for chronic physical pain. Are you blaming them for being in pain? There seems to be a physiological and genetic component to addiction—an inborn reason why some people get addicted to drugs or alcohol while others escape even if their circumstances are the same—that we’re only beginning to explore. Are you blaming them for their ancestry? Still others get addicted because they needed mental health support while going through a bad patch and didn’t get it. “Shitty decisions” are almost never the only factor in an addiction. Often, they’re not even a significant one.

                  The rash of overdose deaths we’ve been seeing these past few years are due to the powers that be tightening controls on prescription-grade opioids, which have a known dosage per pill and seldom killed anyone even when being taken without a doctor’s endorsement. Without the prescription pills, people who were already addicted were forced to turn to street drugs that can’t be dosed properly because the purity varies from baggie to baggie. We’ve killed hundreds, if not thousands, of people as an unintended consequence of the War On (Some) Drugs—so yeah, this is society’s fault.

              • Woofcat@lemmy.ca
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                1 year ago

                No one. Just tired of enabling the scourge of our society and disproportionately investing in people who elect to be a drain on us all. Destroying our downtowns and making everyone unsafe.

                • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.ml
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                  1 year ago

                  Yeah it’s entirely the individuals fault and not a societal failing or anything. Every other country also has this problem for sure

        • quicksand@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Yes, it’s crazy how overpowering these drugs are. They’ll completely take over someone’s life

    • howrar@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      It’s not so crazy when you realize that people are going through tremendous amounts of pain and suffering every day. When you’ve tried everything available to you and nothing improves, what’s the next logical step for getting rid of that pain? A life like that isn’t worth living, so realistically, what are you giving up on by turning to drugs?