Accidental drug overdoses regularly claim more lives than car accidents in Australia, and in a bid to prevent more deaths Australian authorities recently trialled giving people who had prescriptions for opioids, or an addition to them, the antidote naloxone.
The Victorian MP Fiona Patten told 1News that over the course of the trial, naloxone was used 1700 times "and effectively saved 1700 lives".
"What we found is that people who had children or family members who may have an opioid addiction, they were stocking up on naloxone so they would be there to save that persons life," she said.
The trail was so successful the programme has now been rolled out across Australia.
"I certainly think New Zealand should be following suit and particularly now that fentanyl has hit the shores of New Zealand," Ms Patten said.
Naloxone rapidly reverses the effects of opioids and comes as both a nasal spray and in injectable ampoule form.
The New Zealand Drug Foundation is urging Health Minister Andrew Little to take similar action here and make naloxone freely available to more opioid users and first responders.
"We want naloxone in the hands of every police officer, ambulance, fire-engine we also want it to be freely given out to people who use drugs because at any given time we're at risk of fentanyl entering our drug supply and you would see rapid fatalities," the Foundation's executive director Sarah Helm told 1News.
Thirteen people were hospitalised in Wairarapa this month after taking cocaine that was laced with fentanyl.
New Zealand's Medicines Classifications Committee recently recommended that ampoules of injectable naloxone should be made available at needle exchanges to people who use opioids.
Helm said while this was a positive move, it doesn't go far enough.
“This change won't help us get naloxone into the hands of the large group of people who are vulnerable to a fentanyl outbreak. We need the Government to step in now.”
Patten meanwhile said that during the Australian trial many of those whose lives were saved by naloxone were not people using opioids illegally, but people who had prescriptions for opioids after injuries or operations and who had unintentionally overdosed.
The Health Minister Andrew Little said has asked officials at the Ministry of Health to look into the concerns that the Drug Foundation raised.
Little said he has been assured there is enough naloxone in the country, and that Pharmac could get more at short notice if required.
SHARE ME