Disaster RFK Jr. to End 'Godsend' Narcan Program That Helped Reduce Overdose Deaths Despite His Past Heroin Addiction - You NARCAN’T do that!

https://www.latintimes.com/rfk-jr-e...verdose-deaths-despite-his-past-heroin-581846
https://archive.ph/PTJca
Despite his own history of overcoming heroin addiction, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is backing plans to end a federal Narcan distribution program credited with helping drive a steep drop in U.S. overdose deaths.

Narcan, the widely-used overdose reversal drug, has played a major role in reducing opioid-related deaths, particularly amid the fentanyl crisis.

A $56 million annual grant program through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has funded the distribution of Narcan to first responders across the country, training over 66,000 individuals and distributing more than 282,500 kits in 2024 alone. Recent CDC data shows a nearly 24% drop in overdose deaths for the 12 months ending September 2024, the sharpest one-year decline in decades—an achievement partly attributed to widespread naloxone access.

Speaking at the Illicit Drug Summit in Nashville on Thursday, Kennedy reflected on his personal struggle with addiction and emphasized the importance of community, treatment, and hope in solving the drug crisis, USA Today reported. However, behind the scenes, the Trump administration's draft budget includes major cuts to addiction programs, including the termination of the Narcan grant, according to The Independent.

"Narcan has been kind of a godsend as far as opioid epidemics are concerned, and we certainly are in the middle of one now with fentanyl," Donald McNamara of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said. "We need this funding source because it's saving lives every day."

Though Kennedy has previously praised interventions like Narcan as critical to saving lives, he now frames the crisis as one requiring deeper, spiritual and societal change rather than relying solely on "nuts and bolts" medical solutions.

The proposal has drawn swift condemnation from addiction specialists and public health advocates, who warn that cutting Narcan funding could reverse the progress made against overdose deaths. Critics argue that removing life-saving tools while broader societal fixes are slowly pursued would leave vulnerable communities at risk.

While national overdose deaths have declined, experts warn the epidemic is far from over, especially in states still experiencing surges. Ending federal Narcan support could slow or even reverse recent gains.

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[WelperHelper99]

Narcan is a genuine life saving drug. Law abiding people can overdose in just one dose of a prescription narcotic medication if they've never used opiates before and this can buy them time to be saved by medical personnel. Making it over the counter though, that was a mistake. It's something that should be prescribed alongside prescription opiates, held as an emergency medication in rehab centers, and stocked by first responders, not freely available for any junkie who wants it. That being said, most junkies will resent you for administering it because it sends them into basically instant withdrawals when they're revived. Iirc anyway.

This is basically where I am. By normalizing it, and not reserving it as an emergency tool, you have made druggies perpetual disaster machines. If they're overdosing, they just take a shot. There's no risk. No reason to second guess or think that this might be a bad idea.

 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

I would just like to not have to dodge zombies at 5am on the way to work and shove the same shit smelling leaners out of the way to get into the grocery store week after week please. However that happens. I don't care. I am just fucking tired of watching my local area turn into a god damn Walking Dead episode despite the city spending over 60 million a year on homeless and drug rehab services.

 

[TowinKarz]

No one is stopping Los Angeles from buying their own Narcan. Why do taxpayers in South Dakota need their federal money sent to Narcan a bunch of junkies in LA?

If blue cities are as strong as they like to claim? They dont have to grovel for not-real-people in flyover land for money.

 

[Fount of BadSpeak]

I propose a step further: free lethal doses of fent to any addict who wants them. No narcan, just a one way ticket to the best high they ever had so we don't have to deal with any of them anymore. Also, execute every dealer that gets caught.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

Offering help is useless if they don't want to stop doing drugs. You can offer or provide all the help in the world but if a person doesn't want to stop they won't. A lot of them don't actually want to stop.

Rehab isn't enough. Recovering addicts need years of support even after becoming clean. A lot of overdose deaths with fentynyl happen after going through a recovery center. Relapses are deadly with fentynyl.

My area has been littered with addicts who get sent here by courts to do rehab. They rarely complete the program and just fuck off to be yet another homeless junkie shitting up the town. Some do manage to get better and start a new life here. They may even start new businesses. Most just live under a bridge until they OD for the last time. The ones who got better wanted help on some level.

I consider addiction a medical issue on par with treatable mental illnesses. You can't force a depressed person to get better. They have to want to get better to some extent. I have no idea how to deal with this issue. Just know addiction isn't something you can fix purely by force.

 

[FILTH Tourist]

Here is my compromise, we mix the narcan with ghost peppers so when they are used the junky would wish for death instead.

 

[Barry McKockner]

Please, they're not addicts, the proper term is apparently "addiction specialists"

Addiction Engineers

 

[FILTH Tourist]

Addiction Engineers

Compulsive Lifestyle Facilitators

 

[Grub]

My area has been littered with addicts who get sent here by courts to do rehab. They rarely complete the program and just fuck off to be yet another homeless junkie shitting up the town. Some do manage to get better and start a new life here. They may even start new businesses. Most just live under a bridge until they OD for the last time. The ones who got better wanted help on some level.

I consider addiction a medical issue on par with treatable mental illnesses. You can't force a depressed person to get better. They have to want to get better to some extent. I have no idea how to deal with this issue. Just know addiction isn't something you can fix purely by force.

They built a halfway house or some kind of treatment center in my town a few years ago. It's been nothing but a disaster. The junkies have destroyed every room in the place, ripped all the wiring out of the wall. There's been a few fires. The yard has just become a giant pile of stolen bikes and tools and shit. The town pays to have junkies shipped over from the city. The RCMP have basically stopped responding to petty crime in town because it's become a daily occurrence. This used to be the kind of town you could walk out of your house and leave your doors and windows wide open and at worst you'd get home to find someone's come to close the doors for you. Now you park a vehicle and walk away for two minutes and you'll come back to find someone scoping it out or trying to break in.

 

[The Skeksis Emperor]

My area has been littered with addicts who get sent here by courts to do rehab. They rarely complete the program and just fuck off to be yet another homeless junkie shitting up the town. Some do manage to get better and start a new life here. They may even start new businesses. Most just live under a bridge until they OD for the last time. The ones who got better wanted help on some level.

Absolutely, they have to want it. There's this narrative in society that all addicts are victims. They are actually mostly people with very poor coping skills, often because of underlying issues like a personality disorder (excepting people who get hooked on pain pills after a doctor overprescribes or who grew up with parents who are addicts and got them hooked young). People always talk about how addicts have suffered abuse, or poverty, or something else bad. But most people who are (sexually) abused don't turn to hard drugs. Most people who grow up poor don't turn to hard drugs. Most people who go through bad times don't react by taking hard drugs. There is another contributing factor that lies in the person itself. The ones who confront that and overcome it are to be commended, but most addicts can't be saved, and it's not society's fault.

 

[Spastic]

I was going to say fuck them, but there is 2 pages of what I think.

 

[The Dude]

After seeing fentanyl zombies bent over in pain wandering public streets in droves, it seems like a mercy to let them die. Sucks for the slim percentage of junkies who could've potentially turned their lives around, though.

If you see someone under 65 who has a spine shaped like a question mark, using a walker, and wearing filthy clothes, it's a homeless junkie who has been getting their fix on Tranq and Fent. They're getting stoned on shit that is so powerful that they are literally nodding off on their feet and have fucked up their back because of it. I saw someone like this not too long ago, completely bent over while still on their feet like they were doing yoga, but they were just fucked up on Tranq and Fentanyl and their worthless junkie husband was sprawled out on the sidewalk right next to them.

I agree we need to stop saving these people. Let the consequences of their atrocious life choices come to claim them with no rescue. We will have a LOT fewer shity, worthless human-shaped cockroaches who contribute nothing of value to the rest of society if we just stop saving them from themselves. Our culture is in the horrible state that it is because we have become far too tolerant, accommodating, and accepting of inexcusable behavior as a society. The junkies, the homeless, the criminals, the niggers...we need to abandon this disease of toxic compassion that the Left has forced us to adopt and go back to having some fucking standards and expectations of people.

 

[Cheesegirl78]

This isn't pot or beer some teenager is trying for the first time.

Hasn't fentanyl been found in weed, though?

I'm of two minds on this, I've had heroin addicts in my family (who are now clean), who wanted and accepted help, then I see the Philadelphia zombies and think, let them rot.
Terrible way to think about the whole mess.

 

[northstar747]

They can die on the side walk and get swept up by the street cleaning machine.

like this?

 

[CEO of Gay]

If you remove the druggies off the streets either by making it legal to mandatorily commit them to rehabs or just let nature take it's course, society in the surrounding area will likely improve dramatically

I like the idea of applying civil liability for wrongful death to the dealers and everyone up the supply chain. Sic the ambulance chasers on 'em.

 

[Overwritten Tapes]

That being said, most junkies will resent you for administering it because it sends them into basically instant withdrawals when they're revived. Iirc anyway.

That is correct. I've hears stories of them attacking medics because of it.

I'm conflicted on this topic so I can't really say if it should go or stay.

 

[Jace on ice]

Based, let the feral junkies die.

 

[Dr. Ricearoni]

That is correct. I've hears stories of them attacking medics because of it.

I'm conflicted on this topic so I can't really say if it should go or stay.

If you want my opinion? It definitely needs to stick around. It's a miracle drug that practically brings people back from certain overdose death. But it shouldn't be over the counter. That's ridiculous.

 

[northstar747]

There's no risk. No reason to second guess or think that this might be a bad idea.

I ve been ranting about addiction in another thread.

You and I are logical people but addicts function on another level. There is no arguing them to sobriety.

If the goal is treating addiction as a medical issue then narcan is great. There is also subnoxen helps with with drawls.

I like to say the social ill is the anti social behavoir of being homeless, stealing, and using/oding in public.

 

[Overwritten Tapes]

I ve been ranting about addiction in another thread.

You and I are logical people but addicts function on another level. There is no arguing them to sobriety.

If the goal is treating addiction as a medical issue then narcan is great. There is also subnoxen helps with with drawls.

I like to say the social ill is the anti social behavoir of being homeless, stealing, and using/oding in public.

That's the thing with addiction. It takes away the sense of community, happiness, motivation, direction, order. It's insidious. It's also often comorbid with personality disorders.

Some people have a chance, others are fucked for life.