This weekend, the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) is coming back to Orlando at Tinker Field. There is a zero-tolerance drug policy, but one group is trying to teach people how to be ready for deaths.
Project Opioid sends supplies all over the state to try to lower the number of deaths from overdoses. At the entrance to the event, volunteers will hand out the kits.
Drugs like opioids can make people feel bad, but naloxone can help them feel better. Each Project Opioid kit comes with two Naloxone nasal sprays and a QR code that can be used to watch a movie on how to use the medicine. Click here to watch the video guide.
Since the drug only works on opioids, taking Naloxone by someone who has never used painkillers will not hurt them. You can keep it at home, at work, in your bag, or near kids without worrying. It can be bought without a prescription over the counter.
Even though EDC has a strong policy against drugs, Michelle Klug from Project Opioid said it is important to let people know what they can do if they overdose. Seven years ago, Klug’s sister died of an overdose that was not her fault.
While Klug was packing one of the kits, she said, “It is a helpful and sobering reminder to me that each of these boxes that we put in a package, each of these boxes that we are putting together to help educate; it is a life.” This makes it easier for her to understand the impact they have.
Project Opioid has given out more than 90,000 kits and held 112 training events in the past year. Over the weekend, the group plans to give out 5,000 Naloxone kits.
“There have been reports of people having to use it on a friend,” Klug said. “People have told us they saw it being used.” About a week ago, I got a call from a group that we had given Naloxone to. They told me that 18 overdoses had been reversed. That is right, it works. Our neighborhood needs it.
The medicine in the kit is a spray for the nose. According to Klug, you should wait two minutes between sprays and use the second spray in the kit if the first one does not work.
Klug said, “Some people do need more than two, and if they do, and you wait those two minutes and the person still is not responding, then we recommend chest compressions.” “If you know how to do CPR, do it. If not, do chest compressions until 911 arrives.”
Project Opioid works with the Orange County Drug Free Coalition, the Florida Department of Children and Families, and other important community groups to train people and give out Naloxone.