A drug that has the potential to reverse the effects of heroin overdoses should be made available to addicts’ friends and family members as part of efforts to reduce deaths, experts have said.
New figures show a rise in all drug-related deaths to 679 in 2013, including deaths from heroin, which accounted for 86 fatalities.
In half of the deaths from heroin, the user was injecting, and in two out of five fatalities they were not alone at the time.
The figures are contained in a report published by the Health Research Board (HRB) on Monday, which said that many such deaths could have been avoided.
The controversial proposal to set up supervised drug injection centres is aimed at reducing the number of deaths from heroin.
It is hoped that a rollout of the naloxone drug could also have an impact.
Minister of State for Drugs Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said that “lives will be saved” as a result of the use of the drug.
Merchants Quay Ireland (MQI), a support organisation for those struggling with addiction, said that international research puts its potential benefits beyond doubt.
A current trial of the drug, which began last March, has seen 320 packs - each with five intravenous doses of the drug, at about €5 per dose - distributed and available on prescription for those identified as being in an at-risk group.
To date, about 100 prescriptions have been filled, but the rate is increasing.
Mark Kennedy, head of day services at MQI, said it was the organisation's hope that the medication would be freely available to addicts, as well as to their friends and family members, through injecting centres and pharmacies, in order to maximise overdose prevention.
“There are proven initiatives out there, like medically-supervised injection centres and like naloxone, and we would be saying that we need to make these more available because they are proving to reduce the number of people who have died from drug overdoses,” said Mr Kennedy.
Naloxone works by completely reversing the effects of an overdose.
Opiates depress the central nervous system, which can slow down breathing to the point of oxygen starvation.
Naloxone allows users to resume normal breathing rates.
Mr Kennedy said: “What we would ideally see is that this product would be freely available to drug users or friends and family of drug users so that they can prevent deaths.”
Drug-related deaths
The latest HRB figures on drug-related deaths showed a rate of two fatal cases every day in Ireland during 2013 - the latest year for which figures are available - as a result of poisoning (overdose), related trauma or medical causes.
In relation to poisoning, alcohol was implicated in one-third of cases, or 137 deaths.
The report notes that the 86 heroin overdoses marks an increase, but MQI said it was not concerned about any overall upward trend in use of the drug.
"We are consistently in the top four countries in Europe for overdose fatality rates, which is a damning statistic," said Mr Kennedy.
“[But] we are not seeing an increase in the number of heroin users in Merchants Quay.
“We would see about 3,500 individuals coming through our needle exchanges on an annual basis.
“Many of those would be heroin users, but they are an ageing population.”
The Ana Liffey Drug Project said that, according to the 2013 statistics, more people were dying from overdoses than from road fatalities.
“Every death by overdose is one family’s devastating tragedy,” said its director Tony Duffin.
“We must implement policies that will help reduce the number of deaths each year.”
