State naloxone access laws are associated with an increase in the number of naloxone prescriptions dispensed in retail pharmacies

The opioid epidemic was recently declared a national public health emergency (The White House, 2017). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of overdose deaths involving opioids quadrupled between 1999 and 2015, and drug overdose death is now the leading cause of death among Americans under 50 years of age (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). While prescription opioids have driven much of this increase in opioid overdoses, overdose deaths from illicit opioids such as heroin and illicitly produced fentanyl analogs have risen sharply in recent years (Centers for Disease Control Prevention, 2015; Green and Gilbert, 2016).
Source: Drug and Alcohol Dependence - Category: Addiction Authors: Tags: Full length article Source Type: research