What is Naloxone?

Naloxone is an antidote used to reverse the effects of opioid drugs like heroin, morphine and methadone if someone overdoses.

The HSE is currently undertaking a demonstration project to assess and evaluate the suitability and impact of using a prefilled Naloxone injection which is designed for non-medical administration in Ireland. The overall objective of the project is to make naloxone more widely available for opioid drug users.

The project involves 600 opiate users receiving take-home naloxone on prescription. It will also include those recently released from custody who have been identified as at high risk of opioid overdose. These drug users and those close to them have been trained on how to administer naloxone, which comes in a pre-filled syringe, and to recognise the signs of an overdose.

Please see www.drugs.ie for more information.