The Shot That Saves
...be stopping a persons breathing, since heroin does kill slowly the victim can quickly be injected with Naloxone, which would reverse the opioid effect of heroin and leave the victim unharmed. In the research at the Center for Urban Epidemiological Studies at the New York Academy of Medicine showed that if the opioid in heroin is removed by injection of naloxone, this could actually save at least 75% of people because of that 75% many deaths involve multiple drugs that include opioids and these people have a chance of being saved. These statistics are shown to be up-to-date and sufficient because this is a center that deals mainly with research of epidemiology and the research is conducted on a yearly basis rather than less than a month. The second reason the antidote should be widely available is because it is a proven fact that Naloxone is harmless and the side effects are the most common, like nausea, shakiness, and agitation. These side effects can be found in many prescriptions in hospitals, pharmacies, as well as in over-the-counter drugs. If they all have the same side effects to certain individuals, then why not make naloxone legally available to have an advantage on the death rate and increase the survival rate of those individuals who can be saved. Szalavitz’, third reason of why naloxone should be widely available is from the evidence provided in a study conducted of drug users. This studied should that drug users failed to seek help because they were afraid of being arrested, especially those that had a history of arrests and convictions for carrying or selling drugs. According to this study in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 57 percent of drug users interviewed had witnessed at least one death. So, if someone was there to witness an overdose, they could just grab the closest first aid kit available, and with one simple injection save yet another life from overdosing. Salavitz used an example from a New York Training class where 22 people were trained to inject naloxone into any victim suffering from an overdose through a first aid kit. Of those injected there were 10 people that lives were saved. So she is not saying give the whole world another drug to get hooked on, she is just stating facts, that by having the antidote available we could save more lives. This is shown from statistics as well as studies that concentrated mainly on using hard drug users for these tests. Szalavitz says that those that are against her will say that the government is giving society a chance to say that overdosing if okay because the victim knows that there is a chance of reversing the reaction to the drug, or it will encourage drug use. There has not been any evidence, support or research conducted to verify this claim of increasing drug use, it is only an assumption, and assumptions or neither fact nor fiction, just a hypothesis from ones conscious. She continued to state that no one can say that providing society with naloxone will increase or decrease drug abuse; what would be the downfall, trying the drug and saving l...