Federal and state officials are turning up the pressure on the manufacturer of an antidote to help treat heroin and prescription drug overdoses, as the price of the drug has soared in some areas by as much as 50 percent recently.
The drug, naloxone, has been around for decades and is traditionally used by first responders such as police officers and emergency medical technicians to reverse the effects of an overdose. In response to the price increases over the past few months, state attorney generals have pushed for the drug's manufacturer, Amphastar, to offer rebates for public agencies that purchase the drugs.
The pressure comes as localities are dealing with soaring heroin and prescription drug overdoses over the past few years. The death rates for prescription drug overdoses quadrupled from 1999 to 2010, while the rates for heroin overdoses increased by more than 50 percent.
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6 comments:
Supply and demand. The supply is limited and the demand has skyrocketed. Any wonder the price went up?
probably being hoarded by Hollywood elites
137...or spd and wcso
Our local sheriff refuses to allow his officers to carry it (Narcan) or administer it.
He doesn't want the liability issues (some ODs become wild and violent upon awakening), and he doesn't want the dopers expecting a cruiser to be immediately on the way with lights and siren to bail their stupid butts out when they OD.
And he's absolutely right.
My daughter was in one of the alcohol classes at the health department one night. Another person in attendance said she had overdosed twice in the same day. Police took her to the hospital, they gave her Narcan and brought her out of it and released her. She went and took more heroin later that day and overdosed again. Again she was taken to PRMC and given the antidote and released. These junkies don't know they can and will be saved.
It's been around long enough to be dirt cheap.
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