If you use drugs

Call 911 (or your local emer­gency response num­ber) if you wit­ness or expe­ri­ence an over­dose. The Good Samar­i­tan Over­dose Pro­tec­tion Act will pro­tect those involved from drug pos­ses­sion charges or breach of pro­ba­tion/pre-tri­al release charges.

  • Get nalox­one and over­dose train­ing before using – bring a friend
  • Be aware that ben­zo­di­azepines don’t respond to naloxone.
  • Do not use drugs alone or behind a locked door. Have a des­ig­nat­ed respon­der: Stag­ger use with friends so some­one can respond/​call 911 if needed. 
  • If you are using alone con­sid­er call­ing the Nation­al Over­dose Pre­ven­tion Hot­line at 18886886677, where you will be con­nect­ed to a safe con­sump­tion vol­un­teer who stays on the line for 15 – 30 min­utes while you use the substance.
  • Use a less direct route when you take drugs. Inject­ing a drug is the most direct and dan­ger­ous route. 
  • If you mix drugs, reduce the amount of each drug you take and use opi­oids before ben­zos or alco­hol. Use the most unpre­dictable drug first.
  • Use one drug at a time, test your drugs every time by doing a small­er than usu­al test amount first.
  • Wait before tak­ing anoth­er dose – some drugs take longer to take effect
  • The amount of nalox­one in a take-home kit may not be enough to reverse very pow­er­ful over­dos­es, such as those caused by fen­tanyl-like drugs.
  • If you inject do not share any injec­tion equip­ment (nee­dles, cook­ers, fil­ters, rinse). Ster­ile drug use sup­plies are avail­able from many places.
  • If inter­est­ed in our drug alerts, please sign up.

For com­mu­ni­ty agen­cies:
The Safer Bath­rooms Toolk­it pro­vides resources to assess and respond to the poten­tial risk of drug tox­i­c­i­ty events with­in facil­i­ty bathrooms.