Public Health BY JOEY BERLIN
Standing against addiction
PHYSICIAN ORDERS OPEN DOOR FOR GREATER ACCESS TO OVERDOSE RESCUE DRUG
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Austin addiction psychiatrist Carlos Tirado, MD, says the public needs access to naloxone, a drug that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
M
ark Kinzly has experi- enced the power of nal- oxone firsthand.
Mr. Kinzly, cofounder of the
Texas Overdose Naloxone Initia- tive (TONI), says he’s battled opi- oid addiction off and on since 1978. He says he has used the opioid an- tagonist on people he knows more than 50 times to reverse overdoses. Twice he’s been the recipient of naloxone. He says the last time was during his most recent relapse in 2012. “It allowed me to get back in re-
covery,” he said. “I [was] 12 years clean and relapsed and overdosed twice in that episode. And my last time, it allowed me to get some clarity and get the help that I need- ed, which absolutely saved my life and has allowed me to stay clean ever since.” As opioid overdoses continue to take a toll nationally, so continues
PHOTO BY MATT RAINWATERS September 2016 TEXAS MEDICINE 49
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