In an effort to prevent opioid overdoses, the Yukon government is making take-home naloxone kits available for free at health centres across the territory beginning this month.

Naloxone is a drug that temporarily reverses the effects of an overdose caused by opioids such as fentanyl and heroin.

“It can literally bring an overdoser back to life, at least until its effects wear off again,” Dr. Brendan Hanley, the Yukon’s chief medical officer, said at a press conference held in the Sarah Steele Building on Tuesday afternoon.

“But that’s usually enough time to allow access to life-saving medical care.”

The move to provide free, take-home naloxone kits is in response to a growing number of opioid-related deaths in the territory, and across Canada.

More than 300 free naloxone kits have been sent to more than 10 sites around the territory, said Health and Social Services Minister Pauline Frost.

To date, 53 kits have been obtained by people in the Yukon, she said.

Right now the kits are available at the Kwanlin Dün First Nation Health Centre, Blood Ties Four Directions Centre, Taiga Medical Clinic, Alcohol and Drug Services, Salvation Army and at Whitehorse pharmacies. By mid-February, all rural health centres will also offer the kits for free.

The goal is to reduce harm caused by opioids by making naloxone easily accessible, especially to users and families who could not otherwise afford to buy the drug, said Frost.

The naloxone initiative will include a public awareness campaign as well.

Each kit is about the size of a pencil case and contains two syringes with needles attached, two vials, each containing a single dose of Naloxone, gloves and a barrier to be used in CPR.

The kits also contain information on the signs of an overdose.

Kits can be obtained anonymously and health workers will demonstrate how to use them on the spot.

It takes around five to 30 minutes, on average, to learn how to use the kit, said Dr. Sharon Lazeo of the Taiga clinic.

Timing depends on how comfortable the person is using a needle, and whether the person wants to talk about their situation.

Kits should be returned to a health centre after use.

Naloxone is not harmful to a person who is not overdosing said Hanley.

“The risk of harm is basically zero, from using naloxone,” he said.

Naloxone has been used in overdose situations for more than 40 years, but was only taken off Health Canada’s prescription drug list last March.

Take-home naloxone kits are available in British Columbia, and are free at pharmacies in Ontario.

Fentanyl is a highly potent opiate used in the emergency room, obstetrics and for acute pain control, said Hanley.

It’s believed to be about 100 times more toxic than morphine and 40 times more toxic than heroin.

Fentanyl is also a popular street drug, the use of which has become so pervasive and devastating in Canada that health officials are calling it a public health crisis.

The Yukon is no exception: four people died after taking fentanyl in 2016, and a fifth person is suspected to have died in part or in whole because of taking the drug last year.

“These deaths, of course, are not only tragedies for our community, but they illustrate how fentanyl can show up anywhere and is dangerously unpredictable,” said Hanley.

For a person who has overdosed, naloxone can buy enough time to get him or her to the hospital.

But fentanyl’s power should not be underestimated, said Hanley. It could take a high dose of naloxone to reverse the effects of an overdose, and even then, naloxone is only “an interim measure, biding time... until definitive help arrives,” he said.

For this reason, the ability to recognize the early stages of an overdose is crucial.

A fentanyl overdose causes a person to slow down, become sleepy and ultimately comatose, said Hanley.

“The skin becomes cold and clammy, the heart rate slows down, the blood pressure drops, the breathing slows down and eventually stops,” he said.

“With a full-blown overdose, the person may be blue, hardly breathing or not breathing at all.”

The user may be impossible to rouse with shaking or calling, and he or she may experience a seizure.

Right now in Canada, naloxone is available as an injectable drug and as a nasal spray.

The free kits contain injectable naloxone, because it’s proven to work and is less expensive than the nasal spray, said Hanley.

The Yukon government pays about $30 per naloxone kit, he said. The nasal spray, which is new, costs around $200.

Yukon RCMP officers carry nasal spray naloxone to protect themselves in case they’re inadvertently exposed to fentanyl, Sgt. Calista MacLeod said at Tuesday’s press conference.

She knows of one case in the Yukon where RCMP used the spray on a civilian.

“I think it’s an amazing project to have these kits available for people,” said the officer.

“We want people to make sure that if they’re choosing to use opioids, that they know where they can get help and that they can get these kits themselves.”

A variety of complex societal factors can propel people to use drugs, said Hanley, and naloxone is just one element of treatment.

Opioids are “the drug of reward,” he said. They act on the brain similarly to food, companionship and sex, to produce feelings of euphoria, and to kill pain.

At the same time, opioids can overwhelm the respiratory system to the point where the user stops breathing, said Hanley.

On the street, fentanyl dosing is unpredictable, and when mixed with other drugs, like cocaine, it becomes especially dangerous, he said.

Street drugs may be laced with fentanyl unbeknownst to the user.

People shouldn’t use drugs, said Hanley, but if they do, they shouldn’t use alone.

Poverty, homelessness, mental illness and other medical conditions can put a person at greater risk for drug use and addiction.

Though there have been no reports of fentanyl-related deaths since December, the drug continues to appear in people visiting the ER with signs of an overdose, said Hanley.

About one to two people a month test positive for fentanyl, he said.

“But enough to indicate that it’s showing up sporadically and unpredictably.”

In light of the opioid epidemic, the Yukon, B.C. and Manitoba have teamed up on the knowyoursource.ca website, which has information about fentanyl, how to use it safely, recognize overdoses and resources for treatment.

Last Dec. 20, Chief Doris Bill of Kwanlin Dün First Nation put out a message warning people about the dangers of fentanyl.