Harm reduction & Safe supply

Opvee, an opioid-overdose antidote manufactured by Indivior that was approved in 2023, has in recent weeks been slowly rolling out to law enforcement departments. Unlike Narcan or other overdose antidotes currently on the market, Opvee isn’t a naloxone product. It’s nalmefene, a different opioid antagonist that lasts longer. According to cops, nalmefene works better on fentanyl— despite the fact that it’s never been tested in real-world settings, and naloxone still working just fine.

Oregon voters passed Measure 110 in November 2020, which put an end to caging people who choose to consume drugs that the government prohibits. The drug decriminalization measure went into effect on February 1, 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic—a time when lockdowns and social distancing policies cut off people who use drugs from lifesaving harm reduction and treatment programs while exacerbating the isolation and despair that drive self‐​medication.

https://archive.ph/jmK0s

Overdose prevention centers (OPCs) are a proven harm‐​reduction strategy, begun in Switzerland in 1986. There are 147 sanctioned OPCs in 16 countries and 91 locations, including two in New York City, which announced they had reversed more than 1000 overdoses a year and a half after they opened. This saved the city millions of dollars in ambulance and emergency services.