Det A/Supt Anthony Brown said all ACT Policing vehicles are equipped with naloxone. Photo: Claire Fenwicke.
Canberra’s police can now help keep people suffering the effects of a drug overdose alive if paramedics can’t reach them first.
Naloxone is a medication that can temporarily reverse an opioid overdose, such as heroin and oxycodone. It can come as a nasal spray, which ACT Policing has added to each first aid kit in its fleet of vehicles.
There have been 16 deaths where drugs are suspected as being involved in the cause of death so far this year. (These aren’t confirmed as ACT Policing has not received the final reports confirming the cause of death.)
ACT Policing Northern District Detective Acting Superintendent Anthony Brown said, given that police are first responders, officers have been trained in the application of naloxone as part of their commitment to protecting the community.
And the medication has already come in handy.
“Police providing a first response is a regular occurrence, whether that’s the administering of naloxone or CPR … those life-saving interventions until the paramedics can get there, it’s happening quite regularly,” he said.
“Sometimes, if the ambulance can’t get there due to their backlog, they’ll call us or the fire brigade to get someone there to respond first. Other times, people call the police because someone’s passed out on the ground or something like that … people might not know that they’re under the influence of drugs. They might have thought they’d been injured.
“In one of our most recent cases, the guys were just driving around and were flagged down by members of the public who said that someone was in a bad state.”
ACT Policing recently warned about a potential “bad batch” of drugs after two people died of suspected overdoses within a short timeframe.
Such deaths are investigated by the ACT Coroner’s office. Overdose deaths are defined as those cases where illicit drugs or prescription medications, separately or together, are found from a postmortem examination to have caused or contributed to the cause of death.
There were 37 deaths in Canberra in 2024 where drugs were confirmed as being involved in the cause of death. There is also one case that’s suspected to have been the result of a heroin overdose, but that report has not been finalised.
Det A/Supt Brown said police wanted to warn the community about potential bad batches of drugs as, ultimately, they wanted people to be safe.
“Taking drugs is illegal, but we don’t want to see deaths relating to that,” he said.
“There’s no safe drug use as they’re not regulated, they’re not tested … but we still want people to take care when they are taking drugs.
“It’s on us as much as anyone else to get the message out there to keep the community safe.”
Det A/Supt Brown accepted that some members of the community would be hesitant to contact emergency services if illicit drug use had been occurring during an alleged incident.
He said while police could investigate if more serious drug-related harm had occurred, such as trafficking, making sure a person was safe was the first and major concern.
“I can tell you that, for officers, the last thing on their mind is charging someone who’s overdosing; it’s barely a consideration,” Det A/Supt Brown said.
“If there are other circumstances to that, [such as] if it’s a young person that’s been provided drugs, if the person passes away, there’ll be a coronial investigation, and that would include how that person came into possession of the drugs and who provided them and administered the drugs.
“[But] call 000, get first responders there as fast as you can … our priority will be to keep the person safe and get the medical treatment as fast as possible.”
The Federal Government is funding the Take Home Naloxone program to make the medication free to people who may experience or witness an opioid overdose.
It is available for free from many ACT community pharmacies, the Canberra Alliance for Harm Minimisation and Advocacy (CAHMA) (including by post), Civic and Woden Needle and Syringe Program sites, and CanTEST.
CAHMA executive director Chris Gough said the organisation would also like to see naloxone added as standard to first aid kits across the Territory.
“It has been great to see early adopters start to build naloxone into their first aid policy platforms in workplaces, and we would like to see this approach expanded for all work environments,” he said.
“For home use, if you use opioids either on prescription or illicitly, you should have naloxone on hand.”
CAHMA offers free naloxone training five days a week between 10 am and 4 pm, and also offers online courses.
The National and Other Drugs Hotline is available on 1800 250 185 for confidential support, including information, referral and telephone counselling for people struggling with addiction.
If you suspect someone is experiencing an overdose, call Triple Zero (000).
