Comments on Fire Service use of Nalaxone, drug deaths
While visiting a community fire station in Bathgate, Sturgeon comments on an announcment by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service that firefighters are to start carrying Nalaxonespray which can reverse the effects of an opiod overdose.
[Nalaxone] is a part of the overall approach we have taken to reduce the unacceptable toll that drugs have taken in Scotland and the number of deaths that are caused by drugs. We already have naloxone being used by the police (and) by the ambulance service. The Fire and Rescue Service initiative is an important addition to that. Of course, ultimately, we want to see naloxone kits widely available to people, to families of people who are drug users, for example, because it’s easy to administer and it can be the difference between life and death.
I want to see a significant reduction in the lives that are lost and are wasted to drugs, but we recognise it’s going to take time. What we have seen in recent years in Scotland in the form of drugs deaths is not acceptable. It’s not acceptable to me, to the Government and it shouldn’t be acceptable to anybody across the country so we are determined to turn that around.