WKSU News: A heroin-overdose drug will be available over the counter in Ohio soon

Monday, February 1, 2016 A heroin-overdose drug will be available over the counter in Ohio soon Starting in April, anyone can get naloxone at CVS pharmacies statewide by WKSU's KEVIN NIEDERMIER	Reporter Kevin Niedermier

Cuyahoga County Board of Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health CEO Bill Denihan says making naloxone more easily available will save lives.

Courtesy of KEVIN NIEDERMIER

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The heroin overdose antidote “naloxone” will now be available at CVS drugstores in Ohio. The state joins more than a dozen others already allowing the general public access to the life-saving drug as heroin use rises. WKSU’s Kevin Niedermier reports.

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In recent years, police and EMS crews have carried naloxone to administer to people overdosing from heroin or other opiates. Last year, Gov. John Kasich signed a law to make the antidote more easily available in Ohio without a prescription.

Bill Denihan is CEO of the Cuyahoga County Board of Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health. He praises the increased availability.

“We’ve already saved well over 100 people in the last year-and-a-half with naloxone. So the more it gets into distribution, be it CVS or any other way, is good because it will eventually be used to save someone and reverse the overdose from heroin.”

Denihan says between 2013 and October of last year, nearly 600 people in Cuyahoga County died from heroin overdoses.