One of the most important and pressing challenges in UK drug policy today is preventing drug-related death. Drug-related deaths have increased significantly in recent years and the United Kingdom now has one of the highest rates of drug-related deaths in Europe (70 per million). Many of these deaths are due to fatal opioid overdose – more than half (1,829) of the drug poisoning deaths registered in 2017 across England (3,482) involved an opiate, such as heroin. It is therefore crucial that efforts to prevent drug-related deaths in the UK include specific interventions aimed at preventing fatal opioid overdoses, such as Take-Home Naloxone (THN) programmes. Naloxone is an essential3 life-saving medication that counteracts the effect of opioids and is used to reverse opioid overdose.
People released from prison are particularly vulnerable to opioid overdose; the risk of relapse and weakened tolerance levels makes the immediate post-release period fatal. Estimates suggest that there is a “three‐ to eightfold increased risk of drug‐related death in the first 2 weeks after release from prison compared with the subsequent 10 weeks” and “of prisoners with a previous history of heroin injecting who are released from prison, 1 in 200 will die of a heroin overdose within the first 4 weeks”.
