Unintentional drug overdose is the second leading cause of accidental death in the United States, just behind automobile crashes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), between 1999 and 2004, the number of overdose deaths in the United States rose 77 percent, to almost 20,000. The CDC attributes the 62.5 percent rise in drug overdose deaths between 1999 and 2004 to a higher use of prescription painkillers and increasing numbers of overdoses of cocaine and prescription sedatives.

Providing overdose prevention, recognition, and response education to users of licit and illicit drugs and their neighbors, friends, and families, as well as to service providers who work with them, is one of the most primary harm reduction services possible--providing education on staying alive. Heroin and other opiate overdoses are particularly amenable to intervention as risk factors are understood and there is a safe antidote.

"A young man held the head of an unconscious man who had overdosed in Tompkins Square Park on June 6. A third man had administered a life-saving injection of Narcan to the OD victim, then run off, after he had called 911 and the dispatcher had questioned whether he was licensed to administer the drug."

Reprinted from Village Voice
Villager photo by Lorcan Otway