Medicine that reverses opioid overdoses to be more widely available in Ireland in 2024

The Minister for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy Hildegarde Naughton has today announced that Naloxone services will be extended this year after a successful rollout in 2023, the Drugs Minister has confirmed.

Naloxone is a prescription-only medication that can be used as an antidote to reverse the effects of opioid drugs like heroin, morphine, methadone and synthetic opioids like nitazene if someone overdoses.

Naloxone was rolled out as part of a pilot scheme in October of 2023 designed to save lives and promote harm reduction among people who use drugs by the HSE.

6,488 units of naloxone were supplied by the HSE to services in 2023 as part of this scheme. While almost 2,000 people who work in addiction and related services were last year trained in how to properly administer it.

Naloxone can be administered in two ways – via an injection or nasal spray. The availability of naloxone was vital in saving lives during the recent influxe of overdoses in Dublin and Cork.

Among the 2,000 people trained to administer Naloxone are healthcare workers, frontline Gardaí, people who work in homelessness services and family members of people with addiction issues.

Under the recent pilot scheme, patients at St James’s Hospital in Dublin who were at risk of overdosing were given naloxone kits to bring home.

As part of the continued implementation of harm reduction measures under the National Drugs Strategy, Minister Hildegarde Naughton said she is committed to supporting further development of naloxone services in 2024.

In a statement released today the Minister said: "We saw the lifesaving effects of naloxone during the recent overdose cases in Dublin and Cork. In many cases it was administered before emergency services arrived on the scene, and this reinforces the need to make it more readily available".

The TD for Galway and government chief whip said that by the end of this month, the HSE National Social Inclusion Office will launch a blended accredited Opioid Overdose Awareness and Naloxone Administration Training course online.

Concluding her statement, Minister Naughton said: "Naloxone training is part of an integrated approach to reducing drug harm under the National Drugs Strategy, and I am committed to supporting practical initiatives that help to save and improve the lives of those affected by drug use".

The announcement is welcome after 2023 proved to be a lethal year for drug users in Ireland. It was found in November that a trace amount of a Nitazene type substance was dentified in a brown powder associated with Dublin overdoses. In this period, over 40 drug related overdoses were reported to the HSE in the space of 36 hours in Dublin.