The Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS) is a national drug monitoring system intended to identify emerging trends of local and national concern in illicit drug markets, and form part of Drug Trends.
Naloxone (Narcan, Prenoxad and Nyxoid) is an opioid antagonist that is a safe and effective agent for reversing the depressant effects of opioids, including pharmaceutical opioids (e.g. methadone, codeine, fentanyl and morphine) and illicit opioids (e.g. heroin).
This bulletin investigates awareness of, access to, and use of naloxone among a sample of people who regularly inject illicit drugs in Canberra, ACT. To do this we applied the ‘cascade of care’ approach to identify points at which health outcomes might be improved. We also examined the characteristics of people who were aware of but had not participated in take-home naloxone programs (compared to those who were aware of and had participated in such programs).