To mark International Overdose Awareness Day, commuters at Edinburgh Waverley Station can get free naloxone training and kits
People in Edinburgh can learn how to use the life-saving overdose medication naloxone in just 10 minutes at a special event at Waverley Station on International Overdose Day – Monday, 31 August.
We are working with Simon Community Scotland and Scottish Ambulance Service to provide training on how to recognise and respond to an opioid overdose. Together, we hope to give free naloxone kits to around 150 commuters.
Wez Steele, senior training and development officer at SDF, says: “Naloxone is a safe and easy-to-use life-saving medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
“You do not need to be a medical professional to carry or administer naloxone. If you can spare us just 10 minutes this Internation Overdose Awareness Day, we can show you how to save a life.”
According to a recent RADAR report, there were 39 suspected drug-related deaths in Edinburgh between March and May 2026.
Fracesco Sportelli, We See You coordinator at Simon Community Scotland, says: “I believe that everyone should be trained to administer naloxone and should carry it with them every day.
“We don’t learn CPR because we expect someone to collapse in front of us. We learn it because we want to be ready if that happens. Naloxone is the same: in an emergency, having it – and knowing how to use it – could mean the difference between life and death.”
Lily Tait, from Simon Community Scotland, adds: “Naloxone is central to our harm reduction efforts, a principle we all share at Simon Community Scotland. The We See You team, alongside the wonderful peer naloxone training group, and in collaboration with Scottish Drugs Forum and Scottish Ambulance Service, has organised a naloxone distribution event to raise public awareness about its life-saving potential.”
We work alongside Simon Community Scotland and other charities to deliver peer naloxone projects across the country. These projects support people with living and lived experience of drug use to provide naloxone training in their local communities, helping expand access to naloxone and raise awareness of overdose prevention.
You can find SDF and Simon Community Scotland on the main concourse at Waverley Station from 8am to 6pm.