Irish Examiner view: Cork firefighters can now administer life-saving Naloxone
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Naloxone is a prescription-only medication used as an antidote to temporarily reverse the effects of opioid drugs such as heroin, morphine, codeine, and methadone, as well as synthetic opioids such as nitazene.
If someone experiences an overdose, then naloxone — administered via an injection or nasal spray — can help keep that person alive until an ambulance arrives.
It is particularly significant because of the potency of many synthetic opioids, which are far more powerful than drugs such as heroin. This has led in turn to a rise in the number of overdoses, as noted by those at the coal face on Leeside.
Cork City Fire Brigade second officer Victor Shine said he and his colleagues had seen more drug overdoses in Cork in recent years, and there was a recognition within the service that “... we’d have to be able to respond to the after effects of that . . . for somebody who overdoses, we now have the capability of reversing that situation”.
The US has seen naloxone used in this way for some time.
It is the essential component in Narcan, the spray used in parts of America where opioid addiction has a particularly savage grip. In some of those areas, the numbers of people overdosing are so high that the spray is free at certain locations — while Narcan has been available over the counter in America since last year.
Clearly drug addiction and its associated challenges are multifaceted problems, with a variety of root causes which need to be addressed on a long-term basis. However, we cannot lose sight of one of the current challenges — the fact that people are overdosing on our streets right now.
Cork City Fire Brigade's move to use Naloxone is a welcome innovation to keep some of our most vulnerable citizens alive.
A manhunt ensued and, on Monday, 26-year-old Luigi Nicholas Mangione was arrested after a McDonald’s employee in Pennsylvania alerted authorities to his presence.
Mr Mangione was found with a gun, mask, and writings linking him to the ambush, and he has been charged with second-degree murder, forgery, and three gun charges.
He is expected to fight his extradition from Pennsylvania to New York, which will keep the case in the headlines for some time to come. Those bald facts do scant justice to an event which has provoked a huge amount of commentary online and elsewhere, much of it revolving around the frequently appalling behaviour of American health insurance companies. Such companies can be notorious for denying claims when their clients are seriously ill and, in the wake of Mr Thompson’s death, there were harrowing tales of insurance company callousness shared in many online forums.
This was paralleled by a flood of praise for Mr Thompson’s killer, not least because the words “deny, defend, depose” were found written on bullets at the crime scene. They refer to the alleged strategies used by insurance companies to deny claims, defend their actions, and to depose, or use legal action, if necessary. This praise for the killer was often accompanied by reactions to Mr Thompson’s death — which ranged from indifferent or unsympathetic to outright celebration.
The stress and fear generated by interacting with insurers is multiplied when one is unwell to begin with, and there is no doubt that anger with such insurers is justified, but we are surely not at the point where people can celebrate someone’s violent death — as has happened in this case.
Earlier this week, senior GAA officials in Croke Park hosted an online meeting of county board representatives to discuss a matter of significance to all concerned.
The Revenue Commissioners’ interest in the financial affairs of several different county boards has already resulted in some startling revelations. The Mayo County Board made an initial tax disclosure of close to €120,000 pertaining to Cúl Camp expenses — a disclosure the Revenue commissioners have not accepted.
As it is possible Revenue will seek a higher amount, the Mayo County Board has not been able to sign off on its final accounts for the year. Galway is also unable to sign off on their accounts for similar reasons.
It appears that Revenue are interested in matters such as referee fees, team holidays, and various allowances for intercounty players, though it is not clear if they will limit themselves to those matters once they start investigating.
Last month, the GAA pointed to the importance of its ongoing contribution to Irish society — setting the value of that contribution at €2.87bn. There is no disputing the immensity of that contribution, but all individuals and organisations alike must pay their fair share of tax with no exceptions.
However, if Revenue investigates GAA clubs — as has been suggested — there may be a complication.
Clubs rely on volunteers to operate as treasurers, and an onerous compliance regime could be a strong disincentive to involvement.
All sports codes and social organisations are reliant on such volunteers, not just the GAA. Involvement in those organisations should be facilitated rather than obstructed.
Perhaps we should balance the requirements of the tax code with the social capital created by voluntary organisations of every kind.