--- title: Opioid Overdose: World Health Organization and Overdose Drug Naloxone description: People who might witness an overdose should have access to naloxone, a World Health Organization report urges canonical: https://time.com/3556805/who-overdose-drug/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-04T20:18:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T11:13:08.971Z article:section: Health og:title: Overdose Drugs Should Be Easier To Get, Says World Health Organization og:description: People who might witness an overdose should have access to naloxone, a World Health Organization report urges og:url: https://time.com/3556805/who-overdose-drug/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Overdose Drugs Should Be Easier To Get, Says World Health Organization twitter:description: People who might witness an overdose should have access to naloxone, a World Health Organization report urges twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # WHO: Overdose Antidote Should Be Easier to Obtain by [Alexandra Sifferlin](/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Nov 4, 2014 8:18 PM CUT by [Alexandra Sifferlin](/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Nov 4, 2014 8:18 PM CUT Countries should increase access to the overdose antidote naloxone in order to lower deaths from opioids around the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) says in [recently released guidelines](http://www.who.int/substance%5Fabuse/publications/management%5Fopioid%5Foverdose/en/ "undefined"). Naloxone is used in an emergency when an individual is overdosing from opioids like heroin, oxycodone and morphine. In the U.S. alone, [naloxone has stopped 10,171 overdoses](http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6106a1.htm "undefined") between 2006 and 2010. The new WHO guidelines recommend countries ensure that more people have access to naloxone, especially people who are at a risk for witnessing an overdose, like family members and friends of a drug user. Social workers should also have access to the drug, the WHO says. Currently, the people who have access to the life-saving drugs are hospital and ambulance workers. “Any adult capable of learning basic life support can also learn to recognize an opioid overdose, and administer naloxone in time to save lives,” the WHO said in a statement. Each year around 69,000 people worldwide die from an opioid overdose, the WHO says. It’s the second most common cause of death among people who inject drugs after HIV. Access requirements will differ among countries, but in the U.S., one of the reasons it’s difficult to access naloxone is that many American pharmacists and doctors don’t know they can prescribe the drug outside of a hospital setting, as [TIME reported in June](http://time.com/2809058/this-drug-that-can-stop-an-overdose-why-is-it-so-hard-to-get/ "undefined"). The drug is also not always reimbursed by insurance. You can read the WHO’s new recommendations [here](http://www.who.int/substance%5Fabuse/publications/management%5Fopioid%5Foverdose/en/ "undefined"). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3556805/who-overdose-drug/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3556805/who-overdose-drug/"},"headline":"WHO: Overdose Antidote Should Be Easier to Obtain","datePublished":"2014-11-04T20:18:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:13:08.971Z","description":"People who might witness an overdose should have access to naloxone, says the World Health Organization","url":"https://time.com/3556805/who-overdose-drug/","keywords":["Addiction","Overdose","Naloxone","WHO","World Health Organization"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/addiction/","name":"Addiction"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3556805/who-overdose-drug/","name":"WHO: Overdose Antidote Should Be Easier to Obtain"}}]}] ```