N.S. jails moving to provide OD treatment ‘immediately’ as fentanyl threat grows
HALIFAX — The arrival of the highly potent opioid fentanyl in Nova Scotia is prompting the province’s jails to move more quickly on a plan to provide frontline staff with a potentially life-saving overdose reversal drug, says the director of correctional services.
Sean Kelly said a final decision on whether to allow guards or other staff to provide naloxone in jail overdose cases hasn’t been taken, but it is necessary to make the drug quickly available in the province’s prisons.
“We need to have it accessible and immediately accessible in the event of a medical emergency, and I’ll accept the opinion of the subject-matter experts in terms of how to properly make it available,” he said in an interview on Monday evening.
Paramedics who rush to the scene of prison overdoses normally carry naloxone.