August 31, 2016
Today is International Overdose Awareness Day. Numerous families and friends will come together today to remember loved ones lost due to the failed war on drugs.
Forty-plus years of ineffective policies have left millions without treatment and proven life-saving measures. The results are staggering: according to the CDC, in the U.S. alone, nearly half a million people have died of drug overdoses since 2000. That’s nearly half a million sons, daughters and friends gone too soon. While numerous advocacy groups schedule events to raise awareness of the preventable tragedy that is a fatal overdose, others will come together to discuss proven solutions.
In California, San Francisco and Oakland are spearheading this conversation by hosting events such as screening the documentary, Everywhere But Safe, and modeling what safe injection facilities (SIFs) would look like through the exhibit Safe Shape. While the Bay Area looks towards the future of drug policy, Orange County (and many other regions in the U.S.) is barely keeping up with current, widely-accepted overdose prevention measures.
This year, Orange County opened its first syringe exchange in Santa Ana, California. The Orange County Needle Exchange Program (OCNEP), like many syringe exchange programs throughout the country and world, offers on-site HIV and hepatitis-C testing, referrals to substance abuse treatment and housing services, and naloxone distribution and trainings.
Despite the many benefits of the program, OCNEP took 17 months to implement the program due to bureaucratic hurdles. Even after overcoming all of these barriers, OCNEP faces a new challenge: Just five months after its opening, the Solace Foundation, which provides OCNEP’s naloxone distribution and training, has run out of its supply of naloxone.
Naloxone has been used for more than 40 years to reverse opioid overdoses. Currently, 42 states and Washington, DC have passed laws for naloxone access for first responders and/or laypeople. In July, Congress passed the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) which supports expanded use of naloxone by first responders and community members.
Despite the support for naloxone, there is still a need for funding, especially as the price of naloxone has increased significantly and pharmaceutical companies that produce naloxone have stalled donations to community-based programs. The result is thousands left without the drug that saves lives. According to Aimee Dunkle of the Solace Foundation, regular participants at OCNEP have been very vocal about their need for naloxone. In fact, one of their clients was turned away when he wanted to get another naloxone kit, because The Solace Foundation ran out of its supply. The next week, his best friend overdosed.
Since its opening in February, OCNEP has distributed 920 naloxone kits and there have been 186 opioid overdose reversals. Naloxone works best when used as soon as possible, so it’s important to get it into the hands of people who are most likely to be at the scene of an overdose – drug users themselves.
That’s why it is such big news that the California budget includes $3 million for naloxone distribution through the state Department of Public Health to community-based organizations serving drug users. However, this budget allocation is just the first step. We need to ensure that the funding gets to the communities and services that need it most.
Overdose is now the number one cause of accidental deaths in the U.S. On International Overdose Awareness Day, as we remember those we’ve lost to overdose, we must take the steps to make fatal drug overdoses a thing of the past. We can do this by ensuring that overdose prevention is available to those who need it most.
If not, we will continue to lose countless lives to preventable circumstances.
Morgan Humphrey is a policy associate with the Drug Policy Alliance.