Addicts' family, friends to get overdose antidote training

LAPORTE, Ind. (AP) - Advocacy groups in northwestern Indiana plan to train the family and friends of drug addicts how to use the overdose antidote naloxone.

LaPorte County Drug Free Partnership and the nonprofit Overdose Lifeline Inc. are partnering to train 100 people on how to administer an intranasal dosage of the antidote on Jan. 21. The antidote can reverse potentially fatal overdoses from opioid painkillers and heroin.

"Ideally, people who are impacted, the family and friends of the addict, are the ones who want to help," LaPorte County Drug Free Partnership director Joseph Bunch told The (Northwest Indiana) Times (http://bit.ly/2ixjA8g ).

Indiana allows residents to obtain naloxone without a prescription from pharmacies or agencies that are registered with the state. Residents must receive training. The Indiana General Assembly passed a bill in April 2015 starting the registry. The legislation, Aaron's Law, is named for 20-year-old Aaron Sims of Indianapolis who died from a heroin overdose in 2013.

Giving a parent access to naloxone can be empowering, Bunch said, because they can help save their child's life.

Overdose Lifeline President Kourtnaye Sturgeon said the group is using an extension of an Indiana Attorney General's office grant to train to caregivers and community members. The group primarily trains and provides naxolone to emergency responders.

Sturgeon said Overdose Lifeline's goal is to provide naloxone training and distribution and to end barriers of cost and stigma that surround use of the antidote and addiction.

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Information from: The Times, http://www.nwitimes.com