Overdose Awareness Day

Hepatitis SA attended Aboriginal Community Connect for their Overdose Awareness Day fair. CNP Peer Projects Officer Margie Randle was asked to speak as a person with lived experience of overdose, a great opportunity for her to tell some of her story.

I am a drug user who has had my fair share of witnessing and experiencing drug overdoses. The first time it really hit me that I was really playing a life and death game was 25 years ago, when my boyfriend overdosed. I rang the ambulance, they came. I was relieved everything would be fine.

No. The paramedics walked around my flat, grabbed a beer out of the fridge and started abusing me. They didn’t care if my friend lived or died, he was just a junkie. I was wasting their time when they could be helping someone who deserved it.

Eventually they gave my friend Naloxone. Once, then another ampoule, then another one. On the fourth ampoule they said, “This is it—if he doesn’t come around it’s too bad.”

That’s when it hit me. He could really die. No messing about here. My mind went straight to having to ring his parents. What was I going to say? I’d have to organise a funeral. What if the police wanted to charge me? So many things going around in my head as I stood there looking at my grey dying friend on the ground. But then he took a breath! The ambos packed up their stuff, mumbling and grumbling about us. The last thing they said to us was, “Don’t bother calling us again. We aren’t coming.”

If I’d had Naloxone in the house that day I wouldn’t have had to leave him, barely breathing, to run up to the phone box. I could have given him Naloxone. I would have had those four ampoules in the house. I wouldn’t have had to give mouth-to-mouth for what seemed like an eternity waiting for the ambulance. I wouldn’t have been abused and treated so badly.

I saw that paramedic again not long after. He was on 60 Minutes, speaking about helping his community, being the good guy. And this is just one story. I have many more.

We now have access to Naloxone. It reverses the effects of opioids. It’s used in cases of overdose to bring a person back. It is available from chemists, free. You don’t need a script.

A lot of chemists either don’t know about the program, or will try to take your name and details, which you don’t have to give them. They may not have it in stock. This happens a lot, but it should only take a couple of days for them to get it in. If they insist on taking your name or saying it’s not free or you need a script, tell them to ring DASSA.

Remember, the Naloxone program is not just for illegal opioid users. This is for people who are on opioids for pain medication. Your Uncle Jeffrey that has cancer and is in a lot of pain? This is for him. Your mum, who has had surgery and is in a lot of pain? Her too. Think about those people.

Finally, you can’t administer Naloxone to yourself! If you are taking opioids and have Naloxone, you need to tell people where it is. Nobody can help you if they don’t know where it is!