Yukon woman wants your selfies with a naloxone kit

Who wants to see your selfies?

Angie Charleboisdoes but only if you're posing withanaloxone kit.

The Haines Junction, Yukon, woman came up with the idea for a "naloxone selfie" contest, as a way to encourage people to get a kit, and learn how to use it.

Charlebois says shewas moved to do something when she started to hear more about opioid overdoses in Yukon. The crisis started to hit close to home, she said.

"I think it's troubling that people are dying from, you know, something like this which is preventable at this point," she said.

"The selfie contest is basically, like, let's put a face to these kits, let's get as many of them out there, let's have fun if we can while we're learning and talking about this difficult and painful thing."

Charleboissays she's not a drug user, but decided to get trained to use a naloxonekit after a man approached her on the street in Whitehorse asking where he could find a kit. Charlebois had no idea.

"And then as I walked away, I felt like a little bit responsible for not knowing because I thought if he's approaching a stranger for a kit, there must be a good reason," she said.

Posting selfies with naloxonekits is a way to overcome stigma, she believes.

"If everybody has a kit, or as many people as possible have a kit, then people who really need the kits won't be afraid to go and get trained and get one."

Kari Johnston, who also lives in HainesJunction, has already shared her own selfieonline.

Earlier this year, she lost a nephew in Calgary to addiction and that prompted her to attend a naloxonekit training session hosted in October by the Champagne and AishihikFirst Nations.

"I think a lot of us think ... we don't need a naloxone kit, that's not something that affects my family directly.But this is an addiction that knows no ageor race or gender or socioeconomic class," Johnston said.

Charleboishas started a Facebook page for her selfiecontest, and she's asking people to post their selfiesby Feb. 1. Names will then be entered into a draw for prizes.