A bill seeking to make a heroin overdose antidote available over the counter at pharmacies across the state found favor with the Louisiana Senate Health and Welfare Committee today. House Bill 1007 by Rep. Helena Moreno, D-New Orleans, would make the life-saving drug Naloxone easy to access in emergencies by bypassing the prescription process.
“For the past several months there has been a great effort to expand access to this,” Moreno said. “About 20 states have allowed it to be dispensed in pharmacies without a prescription, because the faster you can get this to a victim of overdose the higher their chances of surviving.”
Naloxone reverses the effects of heroin and other opioid overdoses by keeping the airways open and the victim conscious. Heroin overdose deaths have increased across the country in the last several years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2014, 777 people died of heroin overdoses in Louisiana.
Aside from Moreno’s bill, legislators are looking at various ways to expand access to medicine in the state. Legislation forging a path for medical marijuana to be grown and recommended as treatment by doctors is sitting on the governor’s desk, and a measure by Sen. Ronnie Johns, D-Lake Charles, calls for a study on specialty pharmacies. The latter is expected to be voted on in committee today.
—D.B. Narveson
Jeremy Alford and Gordon Brillon will publish a daily update throughout the legislative regular session on Daily Report PM. Alford reports on Louisiana politics at LaPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter or on Facebook. He can be reached at JJA@LaPolitics.com.
