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U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams has urged more Americans to carry the opioid overdose reversal treatment naloxone, known under brand names such as Narcan and Evzio. However, the drug and its delivery systems have become more expensive in recent years:
As opioid-related deaths have continued to climb, naloxone, a drug that can reverse overdoses, has become an important part of the public health response. When people overdosing struggle to breathe, naloxone can restore normal breathing and save their lives. But the drug has to be given quickly.
On Thursday, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams issued an advisory that encouraged more people to routinely carry naloxone. "The call to action is to recognize if you're at risk," he tells Morning Edition's Rachel Martin. "And if you or a loved one are at risk, keep within reach, know how to use naloxone."
[...] The medicine is now available at retail pharmacies in most states without a prescription. Between 2013 and 2015, researchers found a tenfold increase in naloxone sold by retail pharmacies in the U.S. But prices have increased along with demand. Naloxone-filled syringes that used to cost $6 apiece now cost $30 and up. A two-pack of naloxone nasal spray can cost $135 or more. And a two-pack of automatic naloxone injectors runs more than $3,700. And while it's true that naloxone can prevent many opioid-related deaths, it doesn't solve the root cause of the problem.
Related: Kroger Supermarkets to Carry Naloxone Without a Prescription
Chicago Jail Handing Out Naloxone to Inmates Upon Release
Opioid Crisis Official; Insys Therapeutics Billionaire Founder Charged; Walgreens Stocks Narcan
(Score: 3, Interesting) by milsorgen on Saturday April 07 2018, @02:19AM (11 children)
I'd prefer carrying rattlesnake antivenom and an EpiPen for my bee allergy. But the prices on those are insane.
That said if things are really that bad that Americans need to carry this around then I'll carry some in the cars first aid kit if the prices were low enough.
Fun reading: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/09/09/the-crazy-reason-it-costs-14000-to-treat-a-snakebite-with-14-medicine/?utm_term=.240393c64f1c [washingtonpost.com]
On the Oregon Coast, born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days...
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday April 07 2018, @02:26AM
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602422/it-costs-30-to-make-a-diy-epipen-and-heres-the-proof/ [technologyreview.com]
https://fourthievesvinegar.org [fourthievesvinegar.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 07 2018, @02:30AM (1 child)
Things aren't as bad as you think. They're worse. You wouldn't notice because you're a car owner. Try riding the bus sometime and see some real Americans who live real shitty lives.
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 07 2018, @06:19AM
Hey! I Ride the Bus! And I don't have a shitty life! Does take me twice as long as driving to my destination, sometimes. And there is always the risk of sitting in the recently abandoned bum-shit seat. Pays to look, and smell. But point taken, these poop-stained crazy people have the right to keep and bear arms, just like Cat-scratched Fever Pedofile Ted Nugent!!! Who crapped and pissed his own pants for a week (Guiness book? Records?) to get out of being drafted to go to Vietnam. Frenking Coward! And really, really bad guitar player. And even worse hunter, from an ethical point of view.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 07 2018, @03:18AM (2 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 07 2018, @06:14AM (1 child)
One of these things is not like the others! One of these things doesn't belong! One of these things is not like the others, can you tell before I finish this song?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 07 2018, @07:26AM
Legal environment.... its what happens when the Government is given authority to meddle in the market with crony capitalism.
Its how the one percenters make money. The rest of us have other names for doing the same thing.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 07 2018, @03:25AM (3 children)
A contradiction is an unemployment rate of 4.1% combined with opioid epidemic. Employment stats are crap, and the opioid epidemic is basically the 80's inner city crack epidemic metastasized to rural America.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 07 2018, @03:54AM
What do you mean the employment stats are crap? Michael David Crawford is employed in software development, and he's a mentally ill old bald white man. If a mentally ill old bald white man can find a tech job, we must be at full employment!
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 07 2018, @03:56AM (1 child)
Normally, that would be a contradiction, but a huge number of the people abusing opiods are people that got hooked following medical treatment. They were given painkillers that they may not have needed and were not given an adequate treatment plan to get them off the junk when they were no longer in need. To make matters worse, in much of the US doctors can't prescribe medical marijuana that doesn't carry the same risks that opiods do.
The result is that you've got this unusual group of addicts that didn't start due to having issues, they started because their doctors got them hooked.
And as long as we treat this like it's a personal failing and not a societal health crisis, we're going to see the bodies continue to pile up as people judge the addicts and treat them as pariahs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 08 2018, @05:31PM
And some of it is because of stuff like this:
http://www.latimes.com/projects/oxycontin-part1/ [latimes.com]
Your country is rather fucked up if you really need so many people carrying naloxone around. And if it is that fucked up one of your priorities should be jailing those responsible so stuff like this is less likely to happen.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday April 07 2018, @07:02AM
Want to meet up sometime?
I live in Vancouver, work in Beaverton. I don't have wheels but greyhound goes to the coast.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]