By Bryan Anderson
The News & Observer
RALEIGH, N.C. — A drug that reverses potentially fatal overdoses of heroin and prescription painkillers will be more accessible in North Carolina under a bill Gov. Pat McCrory signed into law Monday.
Senate Bill 734 took immediate effect and authorized the state health director to prescribe naloxone hydrochloride through a statewide standing order. The director, Dr. Randall Williams, promptly signed the directive. Now, all participating pharmacies may dispense the drug to anyone eligible, such as someone who indicates an ability to help prevent an overdose.
North Carolina is the third state to pass such a law, state officials said.
“I think this bill is going to save literally thousands of lives,” McCrory said. “It’s going to allow not just deputies or emergency response teams to save lives, it’s going to let parents, spouses and loved ones save lives, and then give those people (who overdose on drugs) a second chance.”
The bill’s unanimous passage in both the state House and Senate reflect a desire to deal with the growing problem of opioid addiction.
More than 1,000 people in North Carolina die each year from prescription opioid and heroin overdoses, according to a news release from the state’s Department of Health and Human Services. From 1999 through 2014, drug overdose deaths increased by more than 320 percent.
Matt Stalls, a sheriff’s deputy in Guilford County, said he has witnessed several overdoses and even saved two lives in a span of four hours by using naloxone. In the past, Stalls said, EMS personnel were the only ones able to offer the opioid reversal drug. As a result, law enforcement officers would wait for paramedics and either treat overdoses through rescue breathing or full CPR.
Over time, though, access to naloxone had improved, Stalls said. The signing of the bill will allow more people to use naloxone to assist those who are overdosing, he said.
“We’ll make sure all of our guys on our squads have it,” Stalls said.
McCrory and state health officials said more should be done. DHHS Secretary Rick Brajer said additional addiction treatment should be offered to prevent overdoses from reoccuring.
Brajer added that there should be a reporting system allowing doctors to see all the other doctors a patient visits to gain access to prescriptions. Such a system would prevent prescription drug abuse, he said.
He also said his department is working with McCrory to get budget approval for $30 million for “improving the lives of people with mental illness and substance use disorders.”
“One of the recommendations that we’ve asked for budget support for is to increase our funding for recovery courts,” Brajer said. “These are courts where an individual with a substance abuse issue comes in and instead of being sent to jail is sent, in fact, to treatment.”
At the bill signing, the Republican governor reflected on the significance of signing the bill in Guilford County. A Ragsdale High School alum, McCrory said he saw a glorification of drug use and lost several of his classmates to alcohol and drugs around 1974.
“I got lucky at Ragsdale,” McCrory said. “I could have been one of those (drug or alcohol addiction) victims in 10th or 11th grade. Thankfully, I did not have the addiction gene or I wouldn’t be here today.”
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