What To Read This Week
1. Expert Advisory Panels To FDA: Make Narcan Available Without A Prescription.
Two U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory boards, both of which are composed of physicians, addiction medicine specialists and first responders, unanimously voted to recommend that the FDA make Narcan available over the counter without a prescription. As Jan Hoffman reported for The New York Times:
“In recommending that the spray become as easily available as ibuprofen, the 19 voting panelists determined that naloxone, which was approved as an overdose-reversal injection in 1971, is abundantly safe and effective even in infants, with almost no potential for misuse or abuse. And, the panels concluded, naloxone does not require medical training to use… The unanimous vote by the committees … makes it highly likely that the F.D.A. will approve an over-the-counter version of the drug [paving the way for the life-saving drug to be widely] available in vending machines, schools, convenience shops, big box stores and supermarkets by summer…Many public health experts believe that if more people were to have the spray readily available at home, or in their pockets or knapsacks, many fatalities could be averted.”
2. “Vending Machines With Cost-Free Narcan Grow As Opioid Crisis Rages In US.”
Writing for The Guardian, Chris McGreal details the work of Vine Grove, Kentucky police chief Kenneth Mattingly whose “heart-rending experience” personal experience compelled him to “put in place Kentucky’s first naloxone vending machine,” a decision that has since “won the support of the city’s mayor.” From The Guardian:
“Kenneth Mattingly’s daughter was twice brought to the brink of death by heroin and twice pulled back by paramedics carrying an antidote, naloxone. Then Mattingly responded to an opioid overdose call early last year at which a woman saved a friend’s life because she was carrying a [Narcan] spray…‘She was a recovering addict herself and she happened to have Narcan she had gotten from one of her treatment facilities,’ Mattingly said, ‘so she hit him with a dose and brought him around. We hit him with a couple more and basically saved his life….He would probably have died if she hadn’t had Narcan. I gave my police officers Narcan to carry on duty but it still takes them time to get there and people die in the meantime.’
3. America’s Second Largest School District Allows Students To Carry Narcan
Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho announced the policy change earlier this month, Emily Alpert Reyes reports for The Los Angeles Times. Narcan, Carvalho told the Times, “cannot be used to get high, is not addictive and does not have any effect on a person if there are no opioids in their body.”
Related: California Governor Newsom is pushing for all middle and high schools in the state to be required to have Narcan on campus. “This is a top priority,” Newsom said, according to Politico. “There’s not a parent out there that doesn’t understand the significance of this fentanyl crisis.” Newsom earmarked $3.5 million in his recent budget proposal for the state’s public schools to supply the drug.
4. Expanding Access Cost-Free Narcan:
Palm Beach County, Florida: “The Florida Department of Health announced availability of free Narcan nasal spray kits in Palm Beach County. A kit comes with two naloxone nasal sprays and can be given to a victim of an overdose by a bystander prior to emergency medical assistance. Kits are free and no appointment is necessary, and come with educational material, referrals, and connections for substance use disorder intervention.”
Four cities in central Missouri: “Central Ozarks Medical Centers announced four Narcan vending machines will be available in Lake Ozark, Camdenton, Lebanon and Crocker … The medicine consists of two sprays and is free of charge. The machine provides a voucher that is then entered into the machine and the medicine is dispensed. ‘These are completely anonymous, there's no cameras on them, and people don't have to give their name. It was really important that the Lebanon Police Department wanted to make sure people knew they weren't being recorded and they weren't watching.’”
Ohio’s Public Universities: “The Ohio Department of Higher Education, the Ohio Department of Health and RecoveryOhio, an initiative from Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, have announced a collaboration to provide emergency naloxone access cabinets on public college and university campuses around the state … Officials say the wall-mounted emergency access cabinet will be an effective and easy way to provide the public with access to the life-saving medicine… [U]p to five emergency access cabinets are being offered at no cost to each of Ohio's public colleges and universities, to be installed in public settings around campus.”
