Pubs, clubs and music venues in Australia\u2019s cocaine consumption capital will be able to keep medication on hand to reverse opioid overdoses.<\/p>\n
Licensed venues in NSW have been invited to participate in a voluntary program providing naloxone nasal spray to keep in their first aid kits.<\/p>\n
Additional training and expert advice will also be available to participating venues.<\/p>\n
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By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n The nasal spray temporarily reverses opioid overdoses by blocking receptors in the brain, buying time to access treatment.<\/p>\n It has no effect on people who have not used opioids.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving this tool to help prevent deaths from overdoses brings NSW up to speed with leading international jurisdictions,\u201d the state\u2019s Night-Time Economy Minister John Graham said.<\/p>\n \u201cOur venue operators care about safety and we\u2019re supporting them with this important tool to keep people safe until emergency services arrive.\u201d<\/p>\n Health Minister Ryan Park said overdoses could happen anywhere.<\/p>\n \u201cThis program is about ensuring that when they do, people have the tools they need to potentially save a life.\u201d<\/p>\n Naloxone availability has become more common nationwide and internationally alongside increasing concerns about powerful opioids such as fentanyl and nitazenes being found in other drugs.<\/p>\n Expanding access to naloxone, including equipping first responders, was a priority action recommended in a report from the NSW Drug Summit.<\/p>\n The government has yet to release its response, expected before the end of the year.<\/p>\n NSW Health issued a public warning in September when 10 people presented to hospitals around the state with severe opioid overdoses, after using what they thought was cocaine.<\/p>\n The state capital, Sydney, has the highest level of cocaine consumption, according to the most recent report from the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission\u2019s wastewater analysis program.<\/p>\n In 2022, the federal government allocated almost $20 million across four years for a take-home naloxone program.<\/p>\n It makes the medication available for free, without a prescription, from participating pharmacies as well as drug and alcohol treatment centres and other sites.<\/p>\n NSW is also continuing a trial of drug-checking services at music festivals, including the Knockout Outdoor festival in Sydney\u2019s west on Saturday.<\/p>\n Two men died after attending the festival in 2023, and another in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pubs, clubs and music venues in Australia\u2019s cocaine consumption capital will be able to keep medication on hand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,137,2733],"class_list":["post-189451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-nsw"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}