As opioid and heroin overdose is becoming more and more prominent in the U.S., many doctors are suggesting and fighting for Naloxone to be sold as an over-the-counter drugs to everybody. In New Jersey, another pharmacy has made Naloxone available even without doctor's prescription.
ACME Markets has announced that Naloxone will be available in all of their stores across New Jersey. It is the result of ACME doing the same thing to Pennsylvania stores. Naloxone is a very effective drug in fighting opioid and heroin overdose. It has saved 26,463 lives nationwide over the past 20 years, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There are now 78 people dying every day because of opioid overdose and heroin overdose in the U.S., CDC added.
Opioid and heroin overdose antidote, Naloxone, can solve these problems if it was made available over-the-counter. Good thing for Pennsylvania and New Jersey citizens, Acme pharmacy has made Narcan Nasal Spray easy to buy even without a doctor's prescription. There are about 96 Acme pharmacies in Pennsylvania and New Jersey who have made it available, reported NJ.com. Not only them but also Walgreens, which started selling the drug over-the-counter a year ago, is selling it.
Experts all over the country are working to make Naloxone's availability easier to the public like the law enforcements, fire fighters, first responders, departments of health, local school districts, colleges, community-based organizations and homeless shelters. "No area of this country is safe from this epidemic," said Jennifer Plumb, a doctor from Salt Lake, Utah. Utah ranked as seventh highest in the U.S. for the rate of opioid overdose deaths stated Yahoo.
Plumb started the Naloxone Utah community. She first thought it will be deemed as unnecessary and will have a bad stigma but other people accepted her wholeheartedly. People also thought it is very much needed and the time has come for the heroin overdose and opioid overdose deaths to lessen.
