Antidote to drug 1,000 times stronger than heroin could be rolled out ‘like defibrillators in phone boxes’

13 May 2024, 17:39 | Updated: 13 May 2024, 17:44

A life-saving drug could be rolled out across the UK 'like defibrillators in phone boxes', a public health minister has said.

Police officers, nurses and probation officers will be able to dish out live-saving drugs to stop overdose deaths.

Ministers will tomorrow reveal a plan to expand the use of opioid overdose treatments as part of a fresh bid to tackle drug deaths.

A new 10-year plan will see police officers, paramedics, nurses and other professionals able to provide supplies of naloxone, a treatment which works by reversing the breathing difficulties experienced by those suffering with an overdose.

Earlier this month, LBC revealed how charities fear that summer festivals could be targeted with drugs 1000 times stronger than heroin thanks to global shortages.

At the moment only certain professionals can dish out the drugs – and they need a prescription.

But in future they will be able to dish out take-home supplies of naloxone, allowing it to be handed out to friends and family of those using heroin or opioids like fentanyl or nitazenes.

Asked whether naloxone could be deployed in a similar way to defibrillators being stocked in phone boxes, public health minister Dame Andrea Leadsom told Tom Swarbrick at Drive it was “something the government will look at”.

Dame Andrea said: “It would be in a locked box as opposed to an open box, but it is the sort of idea we’ll be looking at. The reality is that naloxone is such an incredible life-saving drug that we want to, within reason, make it available as widely as possibly to drug users - it really will save lives.

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“We need to take into account the costs to the NHS and the horrors of losing a person you love to a drug overdose… the terrible increase in synthetic opioids, which are many times stronger than some of the traditional Class A drugs, is a real problem which needs to be solved - and we believe naloxone carries some of the answers.”

Experts fear that constraints on the supply of heroin, exacerbated by the Taliban banning the production of opium in Afghanistan, has fuelled demand for stronger narcotics like nitazines.

An illegal man-made drug often imported from China, nitazines can be up to a thousand times more potent than heroin, and there are fears they are starting to surface in the wider drug supply, affecting a greater number of recreational drug users.

It comes after LBC spoke to Danielle earlier this month, a drug user from Burnley, who detailed the devastating impact that nitazenes have wrought in her local community.

"In the last six weeks, there’s been about eight deaths”, she said, “either from heroin or taking ketamine - because it’s all cut with nitazenes.

“People who’ve been doing [heroin] for years are having one hit and going over… two of my good mates have died lately.”

Expanding the availability of naloxone is part of the government’s strategy to see 1,000 fewer drug-related deaths in England by 2025.

The latest figures show that almost 5,000 people lost their lives due to drug poisoning in 2022 - the highest figure since records began.

Opioid misuse accounts for a significant proportion in these drug deaths, accounting for almost three-quarters of deaths in England and over eight percent of deaths in Scotland.

The report from 2022 marked the tenth consecutive year of increases in the number of drug-related deaths in England.

Responding to the announcement, Professor Dame Carol Black, who chaired the government’s independent review of drugs, said:

“Widening access to naloxone is key to reducing the number of lives lost to overdose and will help support the government's ambition to prevent nearly 1,000 deaths in England by the end of 2025. I am pleased to see such a strong positive response to the consultation and welcome the government moving forward with these important changes.”

“I am delighted that the Government has delivered on one of the key recommendations from my independent review of drugs with a new 10-year plan to help rebuild the drug and alcohol treatment and recovery workforce.”