New heroin-overdose drug will save lives, area health officials say

Missouri residents will be able to carry medicine to counter heroin overdoses under a new state law that has the support of some local medical and drug-rehabilitation professionals.

The measure, part of a push by state officials to combat rising levels of opiate addition, will give legal protection to those who use the drug naloxone on someone who appears to be suffering from an overdose.

Pharmacists will be able to sell naloxone without a prescription. The medicine can be administered by injection or nasal spray.

The law, signed by Gov. Jay Nixon earlier this week, will take effect Aug. 28.

Nixon touted the legislation as potentially lifesaving for opioid overdoses, including those caused by some painkillers and prescription drugs.

Missouri experienced more than 1,000 deaths from all types of drug overdoses in 2014, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.

Karen Daugherty, executive director of Mending Hearts Recovery in Cape Girardeau, said she likes the new law.

“I think it is a good law. It will save lives,” said Daugherty, who leads a faith-based, not-for-profit, transitional housing facility for women. The organization helps homeless women who have completed a drug and alcohol treatment program as well as aiding women who have been released from prison.

John Gary, executive director of the Gibson Recovery Center in Cape Girardeau, said opioid overdoses are a huge problem nationwide.

Nationwide, more than 28,000 people died of heroin and prescription-opioid painkillers in 2014, according to the CDC.

Locally, methamphetamine and other narcotics remain a concern. But heroin addiction and overdoses occur here, too, Gary said.

“We see it up close,” he said.

Like other supporters of the new law, Gary said, “It will have an impact on saving lives.”

But having ready access to naloxone won’t address addiction itself, he said.

“Prevention and treatment are so key,” said Gary, whose center provides substance-abuse services.

Dr. Steven Rothert, director of emergency services at Saint Francis Medical Center, welcomed the new law.

“It is a step in the right direction,” he said.

Rothert said heroin deaths are on the rise, and the new law may help save lives. He said family members who have loved ones addicted to drugs such as heroin likely will seek access to the anti-overdose medicine.

“I think it is a good measure,” he said of the law.

But administering the drug alone is not enough. Rothert said people who have suffered an overdose need to be seen by emergency-room doctors even after they have received naloxone.

Otherwise, an addict who is given naloxone may resort to using heroin again after a short period of time, further endangering his or her health, Rothert said.

Like Nixon, Rothert criticized lawmakers for not passing a statewide prescription-drug monitoring program, which would require pharmacies to report to the state health department details about medications dispensed.

“We’re the only state that does not have a drug-monitoring program,” said Rothert, who favors such a move.

In signing the bill, Nixon said he was disappointed the state doesn’t have a drug-monitoring program but added expanding access to naloxone is “an important step forward.”

Pharmacist Abe Funk of John’s Pharmacy in Cape Girardeau supports the new law.

“If we can save a life, then let’s do it,” he said.

Naloxone counteracts the effects of an opioid drug, but “it is not a cure-all for everything,” Funk said.

In selling naloxone to the general public, pharmacists will have to educate customers on how to dispense it, he said.

Funk said he would prefer trained first responders, such as firefighters, dispense the medication.

Cape Girardeau fire chief Rick Ennis said his department already carries Narcan, a similar type of medication, and dispenses it intravenously in overdose cases. Ennis said his department may look into the possibility of obtaining the naloxone nasal spray.

“We see heroin overdoses occurring, but we have not seen the epidemic increases that other parts of the country have,” he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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