Surgeon General Urges Americans to Carry Drug that Stops Opioid Overdoses
By ABBY GOODNOUGHAPRIL 5, 2018
WASHINGTON — The United States Surgeon General, Dr. Jerome M. Adams, issued a national advisory Thursday urging more Americans to keep on hand
and learn how to use the drug, naloxone, which can save the lives of people overdosing on opioids.
Dr. Adams said making naloxone more available in communities across the country is critical to reducing overdose deaths among people
prescribed high doses of opioids for pain, as well as those who abuse painkillers or illicit opioids like fentanyl and heroin.
“It is time to make sure more people have access to this lifesaving medication,
because 77 percent of opioid overdose deaths occur outside of a medical setting and more than half occur at home.”
Naloxone can be administered through a nasal mist or an injection, suspending the effects of an overdose and resuscitating the victim.
Dr. Adams, who is scheduled to speak on Thursday at a conference in Atlanta, emphasized in the advisory
that more opioid users, as well as their families and friends and anyone who regularly comes into contact with them, should carry naloxone.
Many police officers and emergency medical technicians already carry the drug,
and most states and many cities have issued standing orders allowing anyone to get naloxone at a pharmacy without a prescription.
The last advisory from a surgeon general, in 2005, warned pregnant women against drinking any alcohol;
a previous advisory in 1981 urged pregnant women to limit the amount of alcohol they drank.
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