Ask your local drug service for a naloxone kit. In the UK, people working for drug treatment services can give it out without a prescription, and it can be supplied to someone at risk of an overdose as well as to their family or friends. You do not have to be in treatment, and you do not have to be trying to stop. Then learn the three signs, and never use alone.
This page is not asking you to stop
Most writing about drugs is built for the person who has already decided. This one is not.
If you are still using, the most useful thing anyone can give you is not a lecture. It is the equipment and the three or four habits that mean you are still here when you do decide, whenever that turns out to be. Everything below is written on that basis.
What naloxone is
WHO describes it plainly: naloxone ["is an antidote to opioids that will reverse the effects of an opioid overdose if administered in time"](https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/opioid-overdose).
Three things to know about it.
**It works on opioids only.** Heroin, methadone, morphine, oxycodone, fentanyl and the rest. It does nothing for a cocaine or a benzodiazepine overdose, though it is still worth giving if opioids might be involved, because it will not make things worse.
**Its effect can wear off before the opioid does.** Somebody can wake up and then go back under. That is exactly why an ambulance is still needed after a person comes round.
**Someone else has to give it to you.** This is the whole reason "never use alone" outranks everything else on this page. A kit in a drawer with nobody in the flat does nothing.
WHO ["recommends that naloxone be made available to people likely to witness an opioid overdose, as well as training in the management of opioid overdose"](https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/opioid-overdose). That means you, and it also means whoever you live with.
How to get a kit in the UK
Simpler than most people expect, and free.
UK guidance states that ["people working for drug treatment services can give out naloxone without a prescription"](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/widening-the-availability-of-naloxone/widening-the-availability-of-naloxone), and 2024 regulations widened that further to include registered nurses and midwives, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, registered paramedics, and staff in police, prison and probation services.
The same guidance sets out who can be given a kit: ["a person at risk of overdose"](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/widening-the-availability-of-naloxone/widening-the-availability-of-naloxone), a family member or friend of a person at risk, and outreach workers whose clients include people who use opioids.
So, practically:
- **Find your local drug and alcohol service.** [We Are With You](https://www.wearewithyou.org.uk/help-and-advice/) lists free services across England and Scotland and runs a webchat with trained recovery workers. FRANK is 0300 123 6600, 24 hours, and can point you at what is near you.
- **Ring and ask for naloxone and the training.** That is the whole sentence: "Can I get a naloxone kit and be shown how to use it." You do not have to enrol in anything.
- **Get a second kit for whoever you live with**, and show them where it is.
- **Check the expiry date** and replace it when it runs out, or after you use it.
Local arrangements vary, and funding for kits and training is agreed locally, so if one route says no, ask another. A pharmacy, a service, an outreach worker.
Knowing an overdose when you see one
Learn this before you need it, and teach it to the person you live with.
WHO gives the three signs of an opioid overdose: ["pinpoint pupils, unconsciousness, difficulties with breathing"](https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/opioid-overdose).
Breathing that is slow, shallow, snoring or gurgling is not sleep. Neither is somebody who cannot be woken by their name being shouted or by a hard rub of the knuckles on their breastbone.
**What to do.**
- **Call 999.** First, not last, and not after you have tried other things for ten minutes.
- **Give naloxone** if there is a kit, following the training or the instructions on the box.
- **Put them on their side** so that if they are sick they will not choke.
- **Stay with them** until the ambulance arrives, including if they wake up, because the naloxone can wear off first.
- **Tell the crew what was taken** if you know. That is the information that helps them treat the person in front of them.
Do not leave someone to sleep it off. That is the decision that kills people, and it is nearly always made by somebody who was frightened of getting in trouble.
The three habits
**1. Never use alone.** The single highest-value change on this page. If somebody has to find you, they need to already be there. If being alone is unavoidable, leave the door unlocked, tell somebody what you are doing, and arrange for them to ring you at a set time.
**2. Do not mix.** The NHS names the pattern directly when it warns about taking ["heroin or other drugs, such as benzodiazapines"](https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/addiction-support/heroin-get-help/) after a detox. Things that slow breathing, taken together, are the combination to be most careful about, and alcohol belongs in that group.
**3. Start small after any gap.** This is the most important habit and the least known. Tolerance falls whenever you stop, including after a fortnight, a hospital stay or time in custody. WHO advises that everyone who has withdrawn from opioids ["are at increased risk of overdose due to reduced opioid tolerance"](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK310652/), and the NHS puts it as ["Detox lowers your tolerance to heroin"](https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/addiction-support/heroin-get-help/). Your old amount is not a safe reference point. [Why coming back after a break is the risky part](/guides/drugs/why-tolerance-makes-relapse-dangerous) is the fuller version.
A fourth, if you inject: never share equipment, and get clean supplies from a needle exchange, which local services run and which does not require you to be in treatment either.
Talking to a service without committing to anything
The thing most people fear is that ringing a service is signing up to stop. It is not, and saying so out loud usually settles it.
"I'm not ready to stop. I want naloxone and I want to know what else is available." That is a completely normal call, and services that do harm reduction take it every week.
Ask them at the start what they record and in what circumstances anything would be shared. That is a fair question and it will be answered.
If any of this ever tips into an immediate risk to life, a suspected overdose or withdrawal that is frightening you now, We Are With You's own advice is to call 999. Samaritans is 116 123 at any hour if the problem tonight is not the drugs but everything underneath them.
When you do want to stop
Nothing here is a substitute for that conversation, and having a kit in the drawer makes the eventual attempt safer rather than less likely. When you get there, [how to stop using](/guides/drugs/how-to-stop-using-drugs) has the three first moves and the substances where stopping suddenly is itself dangerous, and [what detox actually involves](/guides/drugs/what-detox-actually-involves) covers the assessment and the medication.
Common questions
**How do I get naloxone in the UK?** Ask a local drug and alcohol service. UK guidance says people working for drug treatment services can give it out without a prescription, and 2024 regulations widened supply to include pharmacists, nurses, paramedics and others. Ask for the training at the same time.
**Can I get naloxone for someone else?** Yes. Guidance allows supply to a family member or friend of a person at risk of overdose, and to outreach workers whose clients include people who use opioids. If you live with someone who uses, a kit in the house is for you as much as for them.
**What are the signs of an opioid overdose?** WHO lists pinpoint pupils, unconsciousness and difficulties with breathing. Breathing that is slow, shallow, snoring or gurgling, and someone who cannot be roused, are the practical versions. Call 999.
**Does naloxone work on cocaine or benzodiazepines?** No. It is an opioid antidote. If you are not sure what somebody has taken and opioids are possible, give it anyway, because it will not make things worse, and call 999 either way.
**Will I get in trouble for calling an ambulance?** Ring anyway. The information the crew needs is what was taken, so they can treat the person in front of them. Leaving someone to sleep it off because you are frightened is the decision that turns an overdose into a death.
Sources
- [WHO, opioid overdose fact sheet](https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/opioid-overdose), for the signs of an overdose, what naloxone does, and the recommendation to make it available with training.
- [GOV.UK, widening the availability of naloxone](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/widening-the-availability-of-naloxone/widening-the-availability-of-naloxone), for supply without a prescription by drug treatment services, the 2024 widening, and who can be given a kit.
- [WHO, clinical guidelines for withdrawal management](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK310652/), for increased overdose risk after opioid withdrawal because of reduced tolerance.
- [NHS, Heroin: get help](https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/addiction-support/heroin-get-help/), for detox lowering tolerance and the warning about other drugs such as benzodiazepines.
