ALL heroin users should carry a life-saving overdose kit, a leading drugs charity has said.

Speaking on Welsh Overdose Awareness Day, Ifor Glyn, director of the Swansea Drugs Project, said 43 users who had overdosed on heroin in Swansea in the past 18 months had successfully used the drug Naloxone.

Now the project is calling on all users to carry the antidote kit, which reverses the medical effects of opiates overdoses.

Mr Glyn said: "Swansea has the highest recorded usages of Naloxone in Wales, with the kits having been used 43 times in the past 18 months.

"The reality is that unless Naloxone had been available, then we could have been looking at another 43 deaths in the city. It really is simple — Naloxone kits save lives, and I would encourage all drug users to get their kits."

"Naloxone kits are one of the most important life-saving initiatives available to drug users and I would urge all drug users in all parts of Wales to get their own kits.

''It's a simple but effective way of reducing the numbers of drug related deaths."

Started three years ago by the Swansea Drugs Project, Welsh Overdose Awareness Day is now a country-wide event which brings together a range of groups and charities involved in drug treatment.

The day is an opportunity for the families and friends to remember any loved ones lost to an overdose, and it is also a way of raising awareness of the risks of overdoses and reducing future drug-related deaths.

Swansea Drugs Project has pioneered the use of Naloxone in Wales, and earlier this year organised a major conference on the life-saving kits, which attracted more than 200 delegates. Police in Swansea are running a high-profile Heroin Ruins Lives campaign which is targeting drug dealers in the county — with the help of information provided by the public. The Evening Post is supporting the campaign.

Chief superintendent Mark Mathias, head of police in Swansea and Neath Port Talbot, said officers supported the awareness day and were looking at how they could help.

He said: "We will be looking to see how we can assist in more practical ways in the future such as issuing the Naloxone kit when people are released from our custody."