States strive to get opioid overdose drug to more people
Posing as shoppers, a team of researchers from the University of Mississippi called nearly 600 pharmacies across the state and asked a simple, yes-or-no question: “Do you have naloxone that I can pick up today?” Mississippi enacted a law authorizing pharmacists to sell the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone — often sold under the brand name Narcan — in 2017. The drug, which can be administered via nasal spray or injection, can prevent death from overdose by blocking the effect of opioids in the body. The results of the survey, conducted last year, were disheartening...