Cape Breton group applauds Health Canada naloxone decision

The Ally Centre of Cape Breton — a facility that helps drug users by providing them with testing, a needle exchange, and education — says Health Canada's decision to make naloxone available without a prescription is a good move.

Naloxone is an injection drug that can prevent a person from dying from an overdose of opiates such as fentanyl and Oxycontin.

Christine Porter, the executive director of the Ally Centre, says they're already distributing naloxone kits through a provincially funded pilot program.

No names needed

Porter says the change to the prescription rule means people will no longer need to provide their name or date of birth to access the kit — something she says "can be barrier."

"We need it to get into the hands of people who are using, but it limits us as well in the fact that it needs to be in homeless shelters, it needs to be in correction institutions," said Porter

"It needs to be in the hands of the family members of people using opiates so they're not being constantly in fear of their loved ones passing away through the night."

A 'major step'

Porter says people in the health community have been working to make naloxone more available for a long time.

"There was whole working group that really worked very hard in getting naloxone off the prescription status," she said. "It is a major step in harm reduction initiatives." 

Porter says she's curious how much naloxone will cost and how it will be distributed in Nova Scotia.

"I'm a little bit concerned about how it's going to roll off the shelves because I really don't want to lose that prevention component," said Porter.

"My wish, and I'm sure the wish of everybody whose working in take-home naloxone distribution efforts throughout, is that the naloxone never has to get used."