OVERDOSES BRING DOSE OF REALITY

Last year was the year of the very public, very deadly drug overdose.

Somehow, the trend didn't turn up on anyone's top news story list of
2005. But everyone seemed to talk, wring their hands and cry about
it. Perhaps it's because of the 67 people in Utah who died of
accidental drug overdoses in the first nine months of 2005, 16 of
them were younger than 20. They were high school and college students.

One worked in a carwash.

Her friends, afraid to call 911, allegedly let her die and dumped her
body in the Bountiful foothills.

One died in his bedroom while his family slept.

One overdosed on heroin in the presence of his roommates. They all
had fresh faces and in better days, big smiles.

To look at them, you'd swear they were "American Idol" contestants.
These stories start feeling hopeless.

People don't know what to do. They shake their heads and move on,
empathizing with the survivors while hoping nothing this terrible
ever invades their own lives. Here is the good news about drug
overdoses: They can be prevented and survived.

A widely prescribed injectable drug - naloxone - can reverse a heroin
overdose in seconds and bring a victim back to life. But the antidote
needs to be available to drug users so they can actually use it. And
that's controversial. People on the scene of an OD can perform rescue
breathing on a victim, saving her from the oxygen deprivation that
means certain death.

Sometimes, rubbing a victim's sternum, pinching his skin hard or
pulling his hair will provide enough stimulus to wake him up. And of
course, you can always call 911. While police and prosecutors always
have the discretion to make a case against people at the scene of a
drug overdose, they seldom do. More law enforcement agencies are
realizing any "war on drugs" must also have a component of saving
lives. These thoughts come by way of Luciano Colonna, executive
director of the Harm Reduction Project in Salt Lake City. The
nonprofit agency relies on a model of preventing harm in high-risk
behavior (such as drug and alcohol abuse and unprotected sex) rather
than constant attempts to eliminate the behavior altogether.
Advertisement Risky behavior and habits exist and persist regardless
of best educational and legal efforts to stop them. On Tuesday night,
the Harm Reduction Project will sponsor two community forums to
discuss overdose recognition and prevention and to trade information
on political and community response to substance abuse.

Local and national experts on overdose will lead the dialogue.

One meeting, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the A. Ray Olpin Union Building's
Saltair Room at the University of Utah, will be open only to those 20
and under.

The second session is for adults only, 21 and over, at the U. of U.'s
Museum of Fine Arts Building's Dumke Auditorium. The forums are free,
but donations are welcome.

Child care is available.

You must RSVP to attend. The harm reduction model is catching on
across the country as communities struggle to address exploding
levels of heroin and prescription painkiller abuse, especially among
young people. "When I was a kid," says Colonna, 48, "all the kids who
did drugs were the bad kids, the lowlifes.

All of a sudden, heroin is cheap; it's easy to get and the so-called
'good kids' are dying. "Can we stop all of it? No," says Colonna. But
a bit less judgment against users - including less focus on treating
them punitively - might put a dent in the problem. Accepting some
reality of drug use and trying to reduce its risk. Sounds positively radical.

But then, one definition of "radical" is to cut to the root of the matter.

Getting basic about this OD mess is a start. To RSVP for the Harm
Reduction Project's forums, call 801-355-0234, ext. 6.