Harm Reduction Hypothetical Heroin Safety Device

[90sdance]

Hi all

I dont take heroin, but i know people who have died under tragic circumstances from it (a relation who ended up getting his legs amputated after a bad dose caused some circulation problem and he passed out - only to be found with is legs basically finished from no blood). His life was beset with tragedy from childhood, and while im not trying to shift personal responsibility (ultimately drug use and remission is on you) he did have an abusive mother and absentee father. He began taking heroin in his early to mid teens. My memory of him as a man was always as someone who appeared sickly, skeletal and with missing teeth. He had lived on the streets for many years (partly of his own choosing). He had a wife at one point, another heroin addict, and she aborted his child and cheated on him soon after. He died alone, altho he did have some family who cared and some friends.

Anyway, i was just thinking. Could some kind of ap/device that monitors breathing and heartrate not be devised, which when they fall below a certain level sounds an alarm ? and then if no response occurs deliver an electric shock ? The shocks could be of differing voltages and so on. The device could be something you wear or carry in your pocket, just plug it into your phone and connect to the app before you shoot up ? Surely something like this would be very simple to make. It would require only a small battery pack or supercapaciter to deliver shocks. Like think of a car jump starter

 

[TheUltimateFixx]

If you overdose on an opiate you need the antidote. A shock won't do anything so long as you have the drug suppressing your pulse and respiration rate.

 

[90sdance]

If you overdose on an opiate you need the antidote. A shock won't do anything so long as you have the drug suppressing your pulse and respiration rate.

Sounds strong. You know what, i just realized, they sedate people to give them high voltage electric shocks, and yea something like heroin is prob stronger than any sedative. My bad. This will sound a bit extreme, but maybe hook up to some kind of life support before doing it ? This would a way of at least ensuring you dont die ? and maybe some kind of pacemaker ? Just throwing ideas around here

 

[LucidSDreamr]

I've thought of the same thing but the device delivers naloxone via pin pick subcutaneous injection if the breathing stops.

It's not a patentable idea due to existing broader medicsrion delivering devices patents already existing...but a good device nonetheless.

 

[cdin]

be cool if you could make a pill that had naloxone or something, but wrapped in another molecule that only dissolved in hypoxic blood conditions.