Great News from California: Anti-Opioid Drug Naloxone To Be Available At Pharmacies Without Prescription

Great news snuck out of Gov. Jerry Brown’s office in California
last week, as
discussed in a press release from the Drug Policy Alliance, who
worked for this result.

Governor Jerry Brown signed Assemblymember Richard Bloom’s
pharmacy naloxone bill (AB 1535), which will permit pharmacists to
furnish the opiate overdose reversal medicine naloxone
hydrochloride upon request. Previously, naloxone was available only
by prescription from a healthcare provider or from a handful of
naloxone distribution programs throughout the state. The bill,
sponsored by the Drug Policy Alliance and the California
Pharmacists Association, was strongly supported by health and drug
treatment organizations, as well as parents’ groups….

The new law will permit pharmacists to furnish the life-saving
drug to family members – people who may be in contact with a person
at risk of an opiate overdose – or to the patient requesting it,
pursuant to guidelines to be developed by the state’s boards of
pharmacy and medicine. It also ensures education and training for
both the pharmacist and the consumer.

“Lives can be lost in the minutes waiting for an officer or an
ambulance to arrive with naloxone.  This makes it much easier
for caregivers and family members to keep naloxone on hand for use
in those critical moments,” said Meghan Ralston, harm reduction
manager of the Drug Policy Alliance.  “Expanding pharmacy
access to naloxone in California reflects the movement nationally
to make naloxone more widely available,” she added.

While full-on unrestricted over the counter availability would
be ideal, for California and the nation at large, this is a great
advance in access to this definitively life-saving substance for
California. 

I
blogged about the drug’s lifesaving importance last year. It
can, if administered even during an ongoing opiate overdose,
reverse the effect and save lives.