Few Ohio pharmacies sell Narcan without a prescription after state law widens access
CINCINNATI — Even though it’s now legal for heroin addicts and their families to buy Naloxone in Ohio without a prescription, many customers are hard-pressed to find pharmacies equipped to sell it. But there are signs that could change soon.
“I probably talk to two families a month that haven’t been able to find it, or they call me and tell me that they had to go to seven different pharmacies before they finally found it,” said Libby Harrison, who offers help to heroin addicts at the Cincinnati Exchange Project.
The life-saving drug, also called Narcan, can reverse an opiate drug overdose by helping an addict breathe again. It’s usually given as a nasal spay and costs between $80 to $100 for a standard dose, experts said.
Just 25 Ohio pharmacies of the 2,132 retail pharmacies in the state sell the the antidote over the counter, according to an Ohio Board of Pharmacy list, which includes eight participating pharmacies in Southwest Ohio. National pharmacy chains, like Walgreens, Kroger and CVS, do not sell Naloxone over the counter in Ohio at this time, but a local doctor is working to change that.
“You can’t treat people that are dead. (Naloxone) is the most efficient use of funds currently available to keep people alive while we’re trying to build the capacity to treatment,” said Dr. Shawn Ryan, who has spent months working with some of the county’s largest pharmacies to make Narcan widely available in Ohio as a state law intended. “(Twenty-five pharmacies) is not nearly enough.”
It’s been seven months since Gov. Kasich signed House Bill 4, the law that expanded access to the drug by allowing heroin addicts and people who know them to buy it without a prescription from a doctor. The law’s passage was a major win for those fighting to end the state’s heroin crisis, but its also brought on more responsibility and red tape for pharmacies deciding to sell it as an over-the-counter drug.
“This is kind of a new method of providing drugs,” said Cameron McNamee, director of policy and communications at the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy.
Most Ohio pharmacies haven’t met the Ohio Board of Pharmacy standards required to opt in. Some pharmacists don’t yet realize that the law allows them to sell the drug without a prescription, experts said. Others are fearful that handing out Naloxone will enable an addict to keep using.
“The reaction was mixed. Some pharmacists were really glad they could do this, that they would have this opportunity to save people’s lives. Some were skeptical that they would be able to put this into practice,” said Ann Barnum, who manages the community strategies team at Interact for Health. “Some pharmacists know a lot about what’s going on with the (heroin) epidemic and some don’t understand the disease of addiction.”
“It’s a shame that we didn’t have this ready to go when we passed the law,” Barnum added.
Filed under: General Problems
Apropos, “Others are fearful that handing out Naloxone will enable an addict to keep using.” Really…For someone who is supposed to be an SME for all things pharmacotherapy, I’m embarrassed to acknowledge that I apparently have colleagues in the Buckeye State who know zilch about addiction. Fun Fact: An addict is one by definition because given the opportunity to use, that is exactly what the addict will do. There is only one cure for addiction that is guaranteed 100% effective, and that is death. Even with treatment and a genuine and multifaceted support system along with the addicts sincere desire, both promoting a committed sober lifestyle, there are addicts that go out again and use. It is a bonafide organic disease centered in the brain and not a manifestation of “wickedness and depravity” or the decision to live an immoral and unethical lifestyle, as opined by the Neopuritans; they, the Neopuritans, seem to be in charge of prosecuting this failed public policy called the War on Drugs.
One provides the Naloxone so that these that are sick may live another day or two and hopefully get the help that they need. It’s an opportunity at life; for where there is life, there is hope. Ir’s called compassion and is driven by empathy. It is a tangible manifestation of the idea, “there, but for the Grace of God go I”. Whomever that bears the letters RPh behind their name in the State of Ohio and holds to this ideology that they are fearful of the addict might continue to use, please be assuaged of your fear and your anxiety by knowing that, yes, the addict is going to keep using. That’s what they do every day unless they get some effective help. Even then, there is no 100%, solid guarantee that they won’t use again, at least until death’s ice embrace forever grips them. The Naloxone is a reprieve form death and a shot at another chance.
I admit that perhaps I’ve missed the point of my colleagues’ anxiety in all of this. Perhaps there is a repressed, tacit hatred by my colleagues for these suffering human beings, a hatred that wishes death on all of them for, well, being sick. That does seem to be the status quo philosophy for so many in our society for the suffering addict. Why? Perhaps this attitude is informed by the idea that the addict is a sh*tty excuse for a human being. To the one that holds to such an attitude, I suggest that such a one, who secretly wishes death on the addict, does not really know what a sh*tty human being looks like. To such a one that holds to this attitude, I respectfully suggest that they drop whatever they are doing and find a mirror. The visage that stares back in reflection at them is the very incarnation of a sh*tty human being. Of course, that’s just my opinion. The reader may take it for whatever value that is found within it.
“Fun Fact: An addict is one by definition because given the opportunity to use, that is exactly what the addict will do. There is only one cure for addiction that is guaranteed 100% effective, and that is death.”
Yes, many who suffer from drug addiction could be described in this way. But I think you’re leaving out the tens of millions of people who are able to recover from their addictions, mostly without the help of anyone else. And then there are those who are able to be productive while suffering from addiction.
I guess what I’d like pharmacists and doctors to keep in mind is that the majority of patients who suffer from addiction are also suffering comorbid conditions, like depression and PTSD. And that many drug addicts were abused as children or have been in relationships full of violence. Those who suffer from addiction are just trying to minimize their pain, and drugs work really well in that capacity — perhaps better than other addictions, like gambling.
https://painkills2.wordpress.com/2015/01/26/what-are-the-long-term-effects-of-narcannaloxone/
Unreal.