Frontline police officers barred from carrying life-saving drug naloxone
That is despite average Australians being able to administer the same drug to others without a prescription under a federal government initiative seeking to encourage peer-to-peer use to prevent opioid-related deaths.
Opioids are the most common drug detected in unintentional fatal overdoses in Australia, and kill an average of two Australians every day, according to figures from the Penington Institute. In Victoria alone, 547 people died from an opioid-related overdose in 2023, the latest available coronial data shows.
The over-the-counter drug, naloxone, reverses the effects of an opioid overdose in minutes by blocking the opioid receptors in the brain so that they can no longer interact with the substance that's causing the overdose. Described as a 'silver bullet' by experts, naloxone has minimal side effects and does not cause any harm if it is administered to someone who hasn't taken opioids.
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It can come in nasal spray, pre-filled syringe or ampoule form, and it can be obtained from most pharmacies free of charge without a prescription under the federal government's $19.6 million Take Home Naloxone program. The medication has been safely used by health workers for decades.
However, despite often being first at the scene of an overdose and being trained to deliver life-saving first aid such as chest compressions, Victorian police officers aren't allowed to independently administer naloxone to people experiencing an opioid overdose. Instead, they are expected to wait for ambulance staff, potentially delaying the administration of the drug.
Victoria Police is concerned its officers would not be covered by insurance if something went wrong while administering naloxone – such as if the person overdosing had an adverse reaction to the drug – leaving them open to court action. Members of the public who administer the drug are legally protected under the good Samaritan legislation.
Opioids such as heroin cause a person to overdose slowly over a period of about 25 minutes, giving first responders time to intervene. However, novel, highly potent synthetic opioids, such as nitazenes and fentanyl, are absorbed by the brain much faster, drastically reducing the window to administer a reversal drug to just a few minutes.
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