A rule that would allow pharmacists to dispense the antidote only to those over the age of 21 is still pending before the Board of Pharmacy.
opioid epidemic
Maine House overwhelmingly approves lifting age requirement for opioid antidote
Rules that would allow pharmacists to dispense naloxone without a prescription have been stalled for well over a year.
Biddeford Rep. Grohman: Send uniters, not partisan fighters, to Congress to change nation’s course
As a farm family member, businessman and volunteer, I’ve learned that great things can happen when people join together for a common purpose.
Waldoboro woman sues VA over death of father, 90, blaming change in meds
She says he died two weeks after a doctor took him off a low-dose opioid painkiller he had taken for 40 years.
Maine Voices: Fentanyl now public enemy No. 1 in America’s war on drugs
Fentanyl caused 58 percent of Maine drug fatalities in 2017, while heroin caused 21 percent.
Cynthia Dill: LePage’s ideas about naloxone, MaineCare are dumb and dumber
We are losing more than dollars because of the governor’s obstructionism.
Our View: Gov. LePage to blame for Maine’s protracted fight over overdose antidote
His resistance to making naloxone more widely available has kept lawmakers from addressing the larger issues in the opioid crisis.
Pharmacy board urged to make overdose antidote available to Mainers younger than 21
Treatment advocates reject an age requirement backed by the LePage administration on the same day the U.S. surgeon general calls for increasing Americans’ access to naloxone.
Legislature votes to spend $6.6 million more a year to help uninsured in opioid struggle
The as-yet-unappropriated funds are intended to ease access to medication-assisted treatment for up to 500 Mainers, but now it’s up to Gov. LePage.
In lawsuit, Portland accuses opioid manufacturers of greed
The suit alleges that 20 drug manufacturers and five doctors who prescribed opioid painkillers knew that the drugs are addictive and subject to misuse.