Naloxone, commonly known as Narcan, has been proven to save lives and Channel 9′s Jonathan Lowe looked into who has access to it and how it makes a difference.
CMS approves Narcan on school campuses
Overdoses are 27% to 46% lower when the OD-reversal drug is publicly available, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
It’s been 10 years since Lauren Kestner overcame her struggle with illicit drug use.
She’s proud that she has stayed sober.
“I should have been dead a really long time ago,” she told Lowe. “There’s so many things that happened in my life that intersected, and I think my daughter was also a really big catalyst.”
Kestner said she had to be intentional about living a healthier life.
“I had the opportunity to go to treatment,” she said. “I also had people in my life who, without me realizing it, were introducing me to harm reduction.”
Harm reduction programs have been around since the 1980s.
They use safe syringe services, which provide clean items to users, along with counseling and resources.