Next RSO Meeting:  Thursday October 10, 2024, 7pm

Overdoses are Preventable​

​NARCAN (the brand name of Naloxone) Nasal Spray is a medicine designed to rapidly reverse opioid overdose.  It is given out by hospitals, libraries, and community organizations in Illinois.

Fentanyl,  a major cause of the surge of overdose deaths, can be detected in substances through the use of fentanyl test strips. These are also provided by government and harm reduction organizations.

Evidence shows that naloxone distribution is extremely effective at reducing overdose fatalities. So far, UCHRP has distributed over 10,000 doses.​

Chicago is Heavily Impacted by the Opioid Crisis

As per the Chicago Department of Public Health, “The prevalence of opioid overdose in Chicago and Cook County has spiked over the last few years. From January 2018 to December 2020, there were 4,283 opioid-related deaths in Cook County with nearly 82 percent of those deaths from June 6 through December 23, 2020 showing the presence of fentanyl in their systems”.
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Each dot on the map above is one overdose death in 2021 alone.

Harm Reduction
​Matters

The Chicago Recovery Alliance (CRA), one of the largest and oldest harm reduction organizations, works to provide harm reduction resources to substance users in Chicago.

Their efforts have paid off. 

From 1996-2000 heroin-related overdose deaths in Cook County rose form 224 to 465. Once CRA was established in 2001, the trend reversed and overdose deaths began to steadily decline for seven-years straight, falling 44%.  

​With the state of Chicago's current Opioid Crisis, harm reduction is needed now more than ever.​


Harm reduction emphasizes reducing negative consequences associated with drug use. 

All people, regardless of whether they use drugs, deserve well-being and respect. Therefore, we provide the means for safer use, managed use, abstinence, and more because any change is positive change. These public health interventions include the distribution of naloxone and drug-testing kits or the establishment of overdose prevention sites. It is an empirically supported approach for reducing overdose deaths, disease, and other harms associated with drug use and is in opposition to previous approaches that involved criminalizing and stigmatizing substance use and substance use disorder.

If you want to reduce drug-related harms like overdoses, harm reduction is the most effective approach. 

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