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Baltimore to Give Heroin Users Overdose Drug
This spring, Baltimore health officials are planning to launch a program
that will enable heroin users to inject naloxone, an opiate-blocking drug
used to revive a person who overdoses.
Health officials said the program is aimed at curbing the rising number of
fatal heroin overdoses. "There is a chronic problem here," said Dr. Peter
L. Beilenson, Baltimore health commissioner. "A significant number of
people are dying each year from heroin overdoses -- in one year, more than
the homicide rate -- and while this may be viewed as enabling, this is a
worthwhile attempt to keep people alive."
Under the program, vials of the drug Narcan would be distributed to heroin
users, who will receive training from emergency-services and health
officials. Narcan is used in the medical community to treat opium-based
narcotics overdoses. In the past four years, more than 1,000 people have died from heroin
overdoses in Baltimore.»»
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Last year, officials said 109 people died from heroin overdoses in Baltimore County. Critics of the program said it sends the message that addicted individuals
can use as much heroin as desired.
"The Narcan program sanctions heroin addiction," said Michael W. Gimbel,
former director of Baltimore County's bureau of substance abuse and a
former heroin addict. "It's like the city has given up."
But Tony Tommasello, director of the Office of Substance Abuse at the
University of Maryland's School of Pharmacy, said innovative measures are
needed to reduce the high number of heroin-related deaths in the city.
"Lots of things could go wrong with Narcan in the hands of heroin
addicts," he said. "But naloxone is a terrific drug and it has saved
countless lives, and while there are lots of questions, the only way to
answer them is test it."|||
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