Rather than telling people that they are powerless in the face of the drugs they use, naloxone shows people that they can be in control of their own health promotion, and the promotion of their peers. Given access to naloxone drug users will (and do) support each other.
‘Fentanyl=death’ messages are inadequate as, without access to licit compounds, people will still access the street market and so harm reduction is also essential.
When discussing harm reduction with an individual, encourage them to bring in their paraphernalia to the surgery. Get them to show you what they do and work together to minimise the harm caused by using the drug in that way.
If you’re using drugs of unknown strength (and you are every time you purchase from a different dealer or new batch), do a tester shot first to see how strong they are. You can always do more later. Many people overdose when they do a full hit of a strong drug.
We need to update the ‘Don’t use alone’ message to one that says ‘Don’t use out of peoples sight’ (to further reduce overdose risk).
Create a ‘safe space’ for preparing your hit. You can do this by getting it together on a surface that you can throw away afterwards (like a newspaper or magazine).
