Walgreens to roll out kiosks that dispense drug antidote without prescription

Walgreens has announced a plan to roll out kiosks that dispense over-the-counter naloxone, the heroin overdose drug that users can inhale or inject, in over half of its U.S. locations.

Last week, the Illinois-based company introduced the stations in New York, and it will start the program in Indiana and Ohio in late February, UPI.com reported.

Many doctors have praised naloxone, which the World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated could prevent 20,000 overdose deaths in the United States. CVS has also made naloxone, as well as Narcan, a similar heroin overdose drug, available to customers without a prescription in states where it is legal to do so.

Drugstores’ efforts to increase availability of these antidotes have come amid a rising issue of opioid drug overdoses in the United States. Overdoses from opioidshit a record high in 2014, driven largely by heroin and prescription painkiller abuse, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

More