What Is Narcan? What Does It Do?
Used with permission. © Partnership for Drug-Free Kids. Learn more at www.drugfree.org.
Narcan (naloxone) is a FDA approved prescription medicine that can block the effects of opioids and reverses an overdose. When a person is overdosing on an opioid (heroin, fentanyl and other fentanyl analogs and prescription pain pills like morphine, codeine, oxycodone, methadone and Vicodin) breathing can slow down or stop and it can be very hard to wake or revive them.
Narcan cannot get a person high. If it’s given to a person who has not taken opioids, it will not have any effect on them, since there is no opioid overdose to reverse. Narcan is becoming more widely available. It is being carried by first responders in some states. Some states are making nasal Narcan available to more of the public, including parents, for low or no cost.
