Michigan Senate passes 3 bills to make overdose drug more accessible

~ Jason Schwartz

NARCAN-KITThis is very good news for Michigan:

The state Senate gave final passage today to three bills that will make access to drugs like Narcan, which can successfully reverse the deadly effects of a heroin overdose, more readily available and require emergency medical personnel to carry the drug with them.

The bills would:

  • Allow Narcan to be prescribed to friends and family of heroin addicts, so it’s readily available in the event of an overdose.
  • Protect a person administering Narcan in good faith to be immune from criminal prosecution or professional sanctions.
  • Require emergency medical personnel to carry the drug in their vehicles and be trained in how to administer it.
  • Require the state Department of Community Health to complete annual reports of opioid-related overdose deaths.

It still needs to go to conference and the governor’s desk.

What’s prompting this?

While heroin deaths are down in Oakland and Wayne counties in recent years, they’re up overall in the state, jumping from 271 deaths in 1999-2002 to 728 in 2010-12, according to statistics compiled by the Michigan Department of Community Health.

Admissions to heroin treatment programs also is on the rise, with 12,753 people seeking help for heroin addiction in 2012, compared to 6,500 in 2000.

Now, the big question is, What comes after the overdose rescue? Are these people going to have real access to high quality treatment of adequate duration and intensity?

Published by Jason Schwartz

I have been an addiction professional and social worker since 1994. I started blogging in 2005 as the Clinical Director at Dawn Farm. I no longer work at Dawn Farm and am now the Director of Behavioral Medicine at a community hospital, and a lecturer at Eastern Michigan University’s School of Social Work. Views expressed here are my own. Keep in mind that the field, the contexts in which the field operates, and my views have changed over time.

2 thoughts on “Michigan Senate passes 3 bills to make overdose drug more accessible”

  1. It’s a good point you make. Is the question ‘now what?’ built into the action plans and training for the use of naloxone? Is there a recovery focus in the strategy? Are recovering people being recruited as trainers and peer supporters?

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  2. Pingback: Naloxone as a bridge to recovery - Recovery Review

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