We Can End Opiate OD Deaths

23536 said:
and yet, many first aid kits contain epi pens
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In the USA, it's annoyingly nuanced- the many first aid kits that contain epi pens are the first aid kits of people who have an allergy for which they have been prescribed an epi pen (or the first aid kits of certain boats, in which case the captain can also get morphine, just in case- hehehe)

Epi pens are not OTC nor are any new insulin products, though the syringes are OTC. The FDA discussed this issue last year & if you have the stomach for 400 pages, the transcript is pretty fascinating (brief discussion on page 237, line 4, though Dr Stancliff's question was misrecorded). The transcript also has an awesome moment where the amazing Eliza Wheeler of the DOPE Project calls Berths Madras (from earlier post) patronizing and insulting- that gem is on page 367, line 20.

In Italy, injectable naloxone is OTC. I think there is at least one additional European country, too- anyone?
 
toothpastedog said:
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), distribution through pharmacies of opiate-based painkillers such as Vicodin and Oxycontin is equal to 700 mg of morphine per person, enough for every American to take an average dose of Vicodin every four hours for three weeks.
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pretty ambiguous with the wording here; what does that even mean? Equal to 700mg of morphine per person? Is that 700mg in one sitting? Over the course of a month? But oh, "enough for every American to take an average dose of Vicodin every four hours for three weeks" (whatever "three weeks" means), I guess I'll just take their word for it that the health system is over-prescribing opiates to the point that there's enough dope floating around to make everyone an addict; that's what they're trying to say isn't it? I don't buy it, especially when doctors have been getting more and more cautious when prescribing opiates, and most hospitals have put strict policies in effect now to limit how/when opiates can be prescribed. My grandfather was dying from throat cancer last summer, and we had to argue with the night nurse to give him narcotic pain meds... If you're fucking dying, the hospital you're in should be setting you up with so much dope you don't even have a fucking clue what's going on. Sitting there watching my grandfather dying, trying to show with his hands that his throat and head hurt (because the cancer ate away his vocal chords and he couldn't talk), was one of the worst fucking experiences of my life... I bet if they had loaded him up on morphine, his last visit from family wouldn't have seemed so meaningless to him.. I bet he would have had something to tell us, like how much he loved us, instead of just being in so much pain that he couldn't think.
 
^it could've been worded more clearly, but it means that at that moment, the amount of opioids in American pharmacies was equianalgesic to ~220 metric tons of morphine

(population of US X 0.7 grams)
 
23536 said:
^it could've been worded more clearly, but it means that at that moment, the amount of opioids in American pharmacies was equianalgesic to ~220 metric tons of morphine

(population of US X 0.7 grams)
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maybe the pharmacies just buy in bulk and have the next 6 months worth of opiates already stocked? How many equianalgesic metric tons of morphine that the pharmacies are giving out each month would be a more practical statistic.
 
23536 said:
and yet, many first aid kits contain epi pens

EpiPen29.jpg


Related question: is naloxone supposed to be IV'd or can it be IM'd too?

Also, is the naloxone nasal spray available yet?
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I was going to say, if it can save lives, and people are dying from not getting it quick enough, then it should be in every first-aid cabinet. There's no reason it shouldn't be
 
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Is there such thing as a sublingual naloxone tablet for this purpose? Of course it would be the least effective (immediate) but I under the impression this wasn't unheard of
 
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