A drug that can reverse the effects of heroin and other opioid overdoses is now available without a prescription in Kentucky.
The Kentucky Board of Pharmacy filed emergency regulation last week to allow pharmacists to dispense naloxone according to their own doctor-approved protocol. Naloxone may be injected or sprayed up the nose to counteract an opioid overdose and allow victims to breathe normally.
Senator Whitney Westerfield of Hopkinsville championed the passage of the heroin bill earlier this year. He said emergency regulation is meant to make the O-D reversal drug widely available.
“Ideally though, we’re thinking about people who are going to be near someone struggling with it. So a mother or a father can. The hope is to get this into as many hands as possible in such a way as to safely prevent lives from being ruined.”
The drug has no potential for abuse according to the Harm Reduction Coalition. The California State Board of Pharmacy passed a similar emergency regulation in April.
In general, heroin use in western Kentucky is low. Paul Ray with the Hopkinsville Police Department says heroin arrests are extremely low in the Hopkinsville area. In Owesnboro, there were only 11 cases involving heroin in 2014. Stu Recke of Kentucky State Police Post 2 says there has been a slight influx in heroin arrests, but most drug arrests are related to methamphetamine. Jay Thomas of KSP Post 1 says his region has seen more heroin than it has in the past several years.
