Can Fentanyl Overdose Antidotes Boomerang?

Aid groups are pushing for more antidotes to fight deadlier fentanyl overdoes, ok, but maybe just so long as it’s not another brilliant progressive idea that enables MORE fentanyl use supposedly MORE safely?

The WSJ piece was enlightening in documenting how fentanyl is unlike other deadly drugs like heroine in that an overdose can kill a user in seconds or minutes, while addictive drugs can take an hour or more to do their dirty work; the thinking among the front-line aid groups is that the antidote “naloxone is needed in greater quantities and closer to users”, e.g., with the users themselves if not first responders rushing to the scene of a given overdose. The harm-reduction groups also say the Biden Administration’s call for overdose antidotes to be distributed closer to where illicit drugs are consumed need to be made more affordable.

It all sounds like it makes total sense. Yet, one cautionary note. Providing “safe” houses, free safe needles and even free drugs to the homeless and the addicted hasn’t seemed to have reduced the addiction rate (but keeps going up) in some places that offer the well-intentioned “help.” Just so long as the fentanyl antidote policies don’t boomerang on everyone?

Davd Soul