Dr. David I. Deyhimy is recommending an emergency remedy for opioid overdoses.
The medical doctor is dedicated to helping patients overcome drug addiction and preventing opioid overdose deaths. As a music enthusiast who regularly attends concerts and festivals, he sees the value in making naloxone nasal spray and kloxxado available at these events.
Deyhimy spoke to rolling out about the FDA-approved drugs that could save lives.
Why is it important for festival attendees and concertgoers to carry kloxxado on them?
When it comes to festivals, that means a lot of young people getting together. It also means that a lot of young people are using alcohol and some percentage of them are trying drugs or using drugs as well. The number one thing is awareness that drug use now has a high possibility of resulting in a fatal overdose due to contamination with fentanyl. People need to know that all drugs, whether it’s cocaine, pills, methamphetamine and more; can have fentanyl in them. That’s what’s causing a problem.
How are the Black and Brown communities affected by the opioid epidemic?
Unfortunately, the Black and Brown communities, as well as the indigenous Native American community, are disproportionately impacted more than the White community is. Some of the statistics show that they are two to one more likely to have overdose deaths related to drugs. There are disparities in access to treatment, drugs like Naloxone, the reversal drugs, so we track these things.
The CDC, National Institute of Drug Abuse, American medical journals, including the New England Medical Journal, all track this and they all say the same thing. We need to expand treatment to these communities and target our treatment at the communities that are most impacted to get the biggest outcome benefit.
Is it true that pharmaceutical companies are responsible for the opioid crisis?
Of course, they have much to do with the situation that we’re in now. This goes back more than 20 years. It’s a long and complicated story but yes, they had a big hand in misrepresenting how dangerous the drugs they were making money off of were. Not only that, they incentivized doctors and community leaders to expand the use of these drugs without necessary safeguards. We’ve learned a lot and come a long way since then and I don’t think it’s solely the drug companies now.
The Mexican cartel is now responsible for the majority of deaths. Illicit fentanyl, known as IMF (illicitly manufactured fentanyl), can be made 24 hours a day, seven days a week in Mexican labs and all you need are the precursor chemicals. Worst of all, it causes an overdose to happen within minutes, not hours like heroin. It’s very important for everybody to carry a drug like Kloxxado, an intranasal Naloxone, or even Narcan.
Photo courtesy of Hikma
