Does access to naloxone influence an opioid user’s decision to use? That is the crux of a recently published (on-line) economics paper, The Moral Hazard of Lifesaving Innovations: Naloxone Access, Opioid Abuse, and Crime, which argues that increasing access to Naloxone sanctions risky behavior, unintentionally increases opioid abuse, leads to greater crime, and may increase the […]
Should unresponsive overdose victims receive rescue breaths or chest compressions from lay bystanders? If a person is apneic but not in cardiac arrest, failing to give rescue breaths may lead this person to fall into cardiac arrest. But, if the person is apneic and in cardiac arrest, failure to do quality chest compressions, will […]
Opioid deaths are generally classified as accidental overdoses. In 2017 Massachusetts began reporting opioid deaths as “All Intents” where they previously reported them as “Unintentional/Undetermined.” They point out that adding suicide deaths only marginally adds to the count. By their statistics only 2 percent of the total opioid deaths were confirmed as suicides. Massachusetts Opioid […]