The city wants to stop drug users from overdosing.
On Monday the Thunder Bay Drug Strategy launched The Superior Thunder Bay Overdose Prevention Program, S.TO.P.P., to tackle a city problem that has the highest opioid prescription rate and second-highest overdose death rate in the province.
“Ultimately it should save lives and that’s our goal,” Superior Points outreach worker Rick Thompson said.
Drug users will be given kits that include Naloxone injections, a drug that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose long enough for emergency personnel to respond.
“Generally an injection will immediately make someone come out and restore their breathing,” drug strategy coordinator Cynthia Olsen said.
People interested in getting a kit can take a 45-minute training course. The course will also include how to recognize signs of overdose from other drugs and how to reduce the risk of overdose.
“Not using alone that’s a significant piece,” Olsen said. “If you use alone and you possibly overdose there’s nobody there to save you.”
Olsen and Thompson said that while there may be stereotypes out that that a drug user might not be concerned about something like overdose, it simply isn’t true.
“We know that this crosses all bounds,” Olsen said.
In fact, more than half of all people who overdose on opioids have seen a physician in the past 30 days before an incident, which means the risk of overdose is not only for those who get the drug illegally. Thompson said probably less than 100 kits will be given out.
“We’re looking for people who really want to do this take this responsibility on,” he said.
