Know Opioid Overdose

An overdose happens when too much of a drug enters your body, making it difficult for your body to process or clear out the drug. Overdoses from different drugs have different symptoms. 

Opioid overdoses impact the ability to breathe. When opioids enter the body, they travel to the part of the brain responsible for telling the body to breathe. By sitting on those particular brain receptors, the opioid slows someone’s breathing. When too many of those brain receptors are covered in opioids, a person will not be breathing enough, or stop breathing completely. 

There are a few signs to look for when you think someone is experiencing an overdose:

• They are unconscious or not waking up
• They don’t respond when you shout
• They don't respond when you rub your knuckles on their breastbone or between their upper lip and nose
• They are not breathing normally
• They are breathing very slowly or not breathing at all
• They are making snoring, choking or gurgling sounds

Signs of an overdose

1. Check for signs of an opioid overdose
2. Call 911
3. Give naloxone – find out where you can get Naloxone
4. Start rescue breathing and chest compressions – learn how
5. Stay with the person until they go to the hospital. Someone who was given naloxone may be at risk for another overdose.

Keep this information with you by downloading this overdose card. 

How to administer naloxone

How to administer rescue breathing

Xylazine, a sedative used in veterinary medicine for large animals like horses and cows, is not approved for human use, but it has been increasingly found in fatal opioid overdoses.

When mixed with opioids xylazine can affect the respiratory system, making the symptoms of an opioid overdose much worse by slowing down your breathing much faster than with just opioids alone. 

Narcan® (naloxone), a medicine that can reverse an overdose, may not be as effective when xylazine is present. This can mean a higher risk of death.