There are ways to prevent loved ones from becoming victims of an overdose. Here are three.
Philip Seymour Hoffman has joined Heath Ledger and Cory Monteith in the tragic ranks of talented actors killed by opioids, the class of drugs that includes heroin and prescription pain relievers like Vicodin. The Oscar-winning star of Capote and The Hunger Games was found on the bathroom floor of his New York apartment yesterday, with a needle still in his arm and eight empty envelopes of the type that usually contain heroin nearby. He was just 46.
Opioid drugs aren’t only killing celebrities— poisoning deaths, most of which are due to drugs, have actually overtaken car accidents as the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S., responsible for nearly 40,000 fatalities annually. But those numbers don’t need to be so high. Although preventing opioid addiction is difficult, preventing deaths from it is far simpler. The majority can be avoided with simple measures — such as knowing the signs of overdose and keeping a nontoxic antidote available in first aid kits— that the U.S. has been slow to adopt. The stigma of addiction and the lack of organized advocacy for affected people have been the biggest barriers to change.
Whether it’s a heroin addict who has relapsed, a toddler who gets into grandma’s oxycontin, a granddad who drinks and takes the wrong pills or a teenager who tries these drugs in a dangerously high dose, there are ways to prevent these individuals from becoming victims of an overdose.
Read more: Philip Seymour Hoffman Didn’t Have to Die | TIME.com