Naloxone: WA Police administer 50 doses of life-saving medication last year, highest number since trial

WA Police officers carrying Naloxone following a landmark trial aimed at helping people overdosing on drugs potentially saved almost one life a week in 2024. Officers around the State now armed with the life-saving medication Naloxone — which can quickly reverse the effects of an opiate overdose on drugs such as heroin — administered 50 doses to people suspected of overdosing on opiate drugs across 2024. There was a total of 110 doses given to people since the trial started in mid 2021 until the end of 2024, with 21 doses administered in 2023 and 30 in 2022. Police said there were nine doses given in the first six months of the trial. A police spokeswoman said the increase in doses in 2024 was due to the “expansion of the Naloxone project, with more officers across the state being trained to administer this medication”. “Naloxone can be easily administered through the use of a nasal spray — it is fast acting and can reverse the effects of a potentially fatal opioid overdose,” she said. Naloxone can also be used to save the lives of other police officers if they began to overdose after being exposed to “highly toxic opioids” during drug searches or raids on illegal laboratories. Police said the medication increased the force’s capacity “to provide potentially lifesaving intervention to vulnerable members of the community”. “Only police personnel who have completed the Naloxone training are permitted to administer Naloxone,” she said. “WA Police Force requires a Health Services Permit to enable employees to lawfully receive, store and use Naloxone.” Police are required to adhere to storage protocols around Naloxone, with specific training compulsory for all frontline “non-commissioned operational officers and auxiliary officers” in areas where police carry the medication. St John WA paramedics also the drug, which can be administered or handed out to people who are at risk of overdosing. “SJWA is the only ambulance service in Australasia able to leave behind doses of naloxone for overdose patients who refuse transport, which reduces their likelihood of overdose in the future,” a spokeswoman said. Paramedics can administer the medication through an injection into the muscle, a cannula in a vein, sprayed into the nostrils or by dispensing it through the Commonwealth’s Take-Home Naloxone (THN) program. They have dispensed more than 270 instances of the Take Home Naloxone since 2021 and administered about 750 doses during emergency care. “St John WA also adapted its triple-0 call processes to prompt the use of take home Naloxone by callers when someone may be experiencing a suspected overdose.” It can be administered through an injection into the muscle, a cannula in a vein, sprayed into the nostrils or by dispensing it through the Commonwealth’s Take-Home Naloxone (THN) program. Naloxone can be obtained free-of-charge at select pharmacies participating in the the THN program. It can also be prescribed by a doctor to people who are at risk of overdose. According to the latest report by the Pennington Institute, WA had the highest rate of unintentional drug-induced death rate per 100,000 people in the nation during 2022. There were 262 deaths across WA in 2022 alone — more than three times the amount recorded two decades prior. Of those deaths, 62 were related to heroin and 69 to pharmaceutical opioids such as morphine and oxycodone.