Your life and safety matter. The current drug supply is unpredictable and often contains highly potent substances like fentanyl and xylazine ("tranq"). Use these practical steps to protect yourself and your friends.
Essential Safety Steps
- Test Your Supply: Assume fentanyl is in everything. Dissolve a small amount of your drug in water and use Fentanyl and Xylazine test strips before you use.
- Never Use Alone: Stagger use with friends so someone is always alert. If you must use alone, call Never Use Alone at 1-800-484-3731. A friendly operator will stay on the line to make sure you stay safe.
- Go Slow: Take a small "tester" dose first to see how strong it is. Space out your doses to give your body time to react.
- Carry Narcan (Naloxone): Always carry multiple doses and make sure your friends know where it is and how to use it. It reverses opioid overdoses, though it won't work on xylazine.
- Avoid Mixing: Do not mix opioids with alcohol, benzos (like Xanax), or other downers. Mixing significantly increases the risk of a fatal overdose.
- Change How You Use: If you can, try smoking or snorting instead of injecting. It isn't completely safe, but it can give you a slightly larger window to respond if an overdose happens.
How to Treat an Overdose
- Check: Yell their name and rub the center of their chest firmly with your knuckles (sternum rub).
- Call 911: Tell the dispatcher the person is unresponsive and not breathing normally (or is only gasping).
- Give Narcan: Administer 1 dose as directed. Wait 2-3 minutes, and give another if there is no response. they don't wake up.Continue to give doses every 2-3 minutes until the person starts breathing.
- Breathe For Them: If they aren't breathing or only gasping, tilt their head back, lift the chin, pinch their nose, and give 1 rescue breath every 5 to 6 seconds. Watch for their chest to rise with each breath.
- Recovery Position: Once they are breathing regularly, roll them onto their side to keep their airway clear and reduce the risk of choking if they vomit.
- Stay with the person: Monitor their breathing until EMS arrives. Naloxone can wear off before the opioid does, and the overdose can recur.
Support & Resources
- Never Use Alone Hotline: 1-800-484-3731 | neverusealone.com
- 988 Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988 for immediate, confidential support 24/7.
- Harm Reduction Coalition: harmreduction.org
- Find local programs for syringes, test strips, and naloxone: https://nasen.org/
- Get test strips & naloxone by mail: https://nextdistro.org/
- Information from SAMHSA on overdose prevention
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