Why you should carry Narcan

How naloxone is fighting the fatal overdose epidemic.

This video is presented by Brilliant. Head to https://brilliant.org/vox/ for a 30-day free trial and 20% off your annual subscription. Brilliant doesn’t have a say in our editorial decisions, but they make videos like this possible.

Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO

The fatal overdose epidemic in the US, which began in the 90s with increased overdoses on prescription opioids, finally looked like it was starting to take a turn in 2018. But then the covid pandemic hit, and amid increased isolation during lockdowns, fatal drug overdoses in the US skyrocketed, crossing 100,000 fatalities in a single year for the first time in 2021.

The main drivers of fatal overdoses over the last ten years are synthetic opioids, like fentanyl. Fentanyl is a highly potent narcotic that often gets mixed into the American drug supply to make drugs – ranging from heroin, to cocaine, to adderall – stronger and more addictive. The result is that huge numbers of people unknowingly consume a lethal dose of fentanyl laced into other drugs.

America’s “War on Drugs” and punitive approach to curbing drug use hasn’t solved this. So now American communities are turning to methods that emphasize “harm reduction” – creating environments for people with substance use disorder to find support, rather than punishment.

A big part of that is the distribution of the drug naloxone, also known as Narcan. Naloxone is an opioid-antagonist, and can temporarily reverse an opioid overdose as it’s happening. It does this by blocking opioid receptors in the brain.

Naloxone has been credited with saving tens of thousands of lives so far according to the CDC, and is a tool for fighting the ongoing overdose epidemic that some medical experts are now urging all Americans to have on hand.

Find harm reduction resources near you (US only):
National Harm Reduction Coalition’s Naloxone Finder: https://harmreduction.org/resource-center/harm-reduction-near-you/

Free harm reduction supplies by mail from non-profit NEXT Distro: https://nextdistro.org/naloxone#state-finder

Sources and further reading:
The American Medical Association’s Overdose Epidemic Report for 2023: https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/ama-overdose-epidemic-report.pdf

Latest drug overdose death rate data from National Institutes of Health: https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates

CDC guidance on overdose prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/overdose-prevention/index.html

Struggling with substance use disorder? SAMHSA’s national helpline: https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/national-helpline

Support our work. Become a Vox Member today: http://www.vox.com/memberships

Subscribe to our channel and turn on notifications (🔔) so you don't miss any videos: http://goo.gl/0bsAjO

Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com.

Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE
Follow Vox on Facebook: http://goo.gl/U2g06o
Or Twitter: http://goo.gl/XFrZ5H Receive SMS online on sms24.me

TubeReader video aggregator is a website that collects and organizes online videos from the YouTube source. Video aggregation is done for different purposes, and TubeReader take different approaches to achieve their purpose.

Our try to collect videos of high quality or interest for visitors to view; the collection may be made by editors or may be based on community votes.

Another method is to base the collection on those videos most viewed, either at the aggregator site or at various popular video hosting sites.

TubeReader site exists to allow users to collect their own sets of videos, for personal use as well as for browsing and viewing by others; TubeReader can develop online communities around video sharing.

Our site allow users to create a personalized video playlist, for personal use as well as for browsing and viewing by others.

@YouTubeReaderBot allows you to subscribe to Youtube channels.

By using @YouTubeReaderBot Bot you agree with YouTube Terms of Service.

Use the @YouTubeReaderBot telegram bot to be the first to be notified when new videos are released on your favorite channels.

Look for new videos or channels and share them with your friends.

You can start using our bot from this video, subscribe now to Why you should carry Narcan

What is YouTube?

YouTube is a free video sharing website that makes it easy to watch online videos. You can even create and upload your own videos to share with others. Originally created in 2005, YouTube is now one of the most popular sites on the Web, with visitors watching around 6 billion hours of video every month.