An overdose prevention center could dramatically reduce overdose rates.
indicating that drug overdose was the leading cause of accidental death, with a 237% increase from 2021. This past March, an important time for Austin tourism, saw a string of more than a dozen drug overdoses, some fatal, all on or near Sixth Street. We are all connected by the shared pain of losing friends, family, and neighbors to overdose.
To understand drug overdoses, let's consider how they happen. Excessively large doses of opioids tell our brains to slow our breathing, and sometimes stop altogether. As such, a mainstay piece of advice for people who use drugs is to never do so alone – have someone there to help. But this advice has its practical limitations. When people use drugs multiple times a day to ward off withdrawal, there often won't be someone available every time.
Austin needs an overdose prevention center . OPCs offer a clean and supervised place to use drugs purchased elsewhere, under the watchful eye of expert staff, often nurses and EMTs, ready to spring into action if and when an overdose happens. Instead of someone going without oxygen for several minutes and only being found after their death, naloxone is given immediately and breathing returns in seconds. A life is saved and thousands of dollars in medical costs are avoided.
OPCs save lives while also supporting a healthier community. These facilities are behind closed doors, eliminating the common complaint of people using drugs in public spaces. They require no specialized or costly construction. Supplies used to consume drugs are left behind in special waste containers and disposed of as medical waste, eliminating discarded syringes on sidewalks.
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