If you or someone you care about uses substances, knowing some important information and having some resources can save lives.
- Never use alone
- Always have a Narcan (naloxone) kit on hand
- Avoid mixing opioids with alcohol, benzodiazipines (“benzos”) or sleeping pills
- Also avoid “speedballing” – mixing opioids with stimulants like crack, cocaine, meth (pint, speed, methamphetamine) which makes it hard to judge how much of each you’ve taken.
- If you haven’t used opioids for a while or have cut down, remember your tolerance to opioids goes down, so a dose that you may have tolerated earlier could kill you. Start low and go slow.
This video from the BC Centre for Disease Control’s service, “Toward the Heart“, explains how to know if someone has OD’d and what to do:
Don’t worry about being charged for simple possession of drugs if you are with someone who has OD’d.
The Good Samaritan Act is a law that protects you from being charged for:
- simple possession of a controlled substance, or
- charges concerning a pre-trial release, probation order, conditional sentence or parole violations related to simple possession.