SAN ANTONIO – A drug that can reverse an overdose on opioids is now available over the counter across Texas. It's a huge change made just this month in lieu of rising statistics of opioid use and overdoses.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, deaths from prescription painkillers more than tripled nationwide from 2001 to 2014, while the number of heroin deaths increased six-fold.
The move to make reversal medications over the counter, however, has been controversial.
Valarie McDonald is a recovering pain-pill and heroin addict. It was an addiction that almost killed her.
"I woke up in an ambulance with them saying, 'You just overdosed on heroin and had someone not have been there, five minutes later, we wouldn't have been able to bring you back,'" McDonald said.
EMS workers gave her a shot of naloxone, a medicine that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose. It comes in two forms: an injection, and a nasal spray called Narcan.
This month, it became legal to buy it over the counter in Texas pharmacies.
To get the medication, anyone can walk into a pharmacy that carries it, and the pharmacist will write a prescription on the spot and let the customer walk right out with it.
"It's similar to someone who's got an allergy to bees carrying an Epipen with them," said Dr. Brett Ginsburg with UT Medicine's Psychiatry Department.
He expects the majority of people who buy naloxone will be loved ones of either addicts or people taking pain pills. Ginsburg said while many are celebrating the new law, others are worried about it.
"Some people have concerns about this being something of an endorsement of substance use. If we're giving people means to reverse opioid overdose, we're saying it's OK to take opioids it's OK to overdose, because we're going to give you the means to reverse it. Frankly I think this is a bit of a cruel perspective because the drug itself does not produce any sort of high. People don't want to take this drug. It's really a drug that's taken when it's necessary," he said.
McDonald is clearly a huge supporter of broadening the availability of naloxone.
"I know it's a controversy with people because they're like, some people are going to shoot up more if they have the Narcan. Well guess what? They're going to shoot up anyway. So why not give them the hope to maybe be able to bring them back and give them a chance? It gave me this chance. And now I get to live life again," she said.
Pharmacists who complete an hour-long training course are also now allowed to administer naloxone to anyone who needs it on the spot. Some pharmacists are worried about the liability of that.
"Certainly I think there are liability issues that the pharmacists should consider, I'm not discounting those, but in general, it's a safe medication," Ginsburg explained, saying nothing is as bad as the person potentially dying from an overdose.
Since this just went into effect, some pharmacies are still waiting for shipments of the medicine. So anyone planning to buy it, should call ahead to make sure they have it in stock.
Clarification:
The substance abuse experts at UT Medicine San Antonio said they do not endorse the position that naloxone will give some people an excuse to abuse opioid drugs or heroin. Rather, they say the medical consensus is very much in favor of making naloxone more available to save lives.