BRATTLEBORO — Thanks for the piece about this important lifesaving drug.
A follow-up piece - one addressing the legal issues around the use of Narcan (naloxone) by non-medical professionals, and the legal repercussions of calling 911 as a witness to a probable overdose - would be most helpful.
As the article mentioned, folks might be administering Narcan without calling for professional emergency response. One reason might be ignorance of the possible legal consequences for the person reporting an overdose as well as legal repercussions for the person in distress and of police involvement in the response.
Is there a basis for such anxiety? There is, actually. There have been cases of 911 callers being charged with providing, selling, or possessing drugs.
When I lived in another state, I was educated on the use of Narcan; part of this education was information about the specifics of what to say to a 911 dispatcher.
I was told that one's language when placing such a call must be carefully chosen; for example, one could say, “I am with a person in their mid-30s who isn't breathing,” but advised never to use phrases like “drug overdose,” which implies knowledge of the ingestion of illegal substance(s), making the caller legally culpable for the victim's use or, in worst case, death.