State prepares to give out free overdose reversal drugs Thursday

The effort is intended to make the opioid overdose reversal drug more accessible to people who may need to use it on friends or family members

• Katie Meyer
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  Katie Meyer was WITF’s Capitol Bureau Chief from 2016-2020. While at WITF, she covered all things state politics for public radio stations throughout Pennsylvania. Katie came to Harrisburg by way of New York City, where she worked at Fordham University’s public radio station, WFUV, as an anchor, general assignment reporter, and co-host of an original podcast. A 2016 graduate of Fordham, she earned several awards for her work at WFUV, including four 2016 Gracies.
  
  Katie is a native New Yorker, though she originally hails from Troy, a little farther up the Hudson River. She can attest that the bagels are still pretty good there.
  
  WITF's Capitol Bureau Chief Desk is partially funded through generous gifts made in the memory of Tony May through the Anthony J. May Memorial Fund.
  
  For more information about Tony May, click here.

 Mary Altaffer/The Associated Press

FILE PHOTO: A Narcan nasal device, which delivers naloxone, lies on a counter.

(Harrisburg) — Eighty locations across Pennsylvania are getting ready to hand out free naloxone this Thursday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The effort is intended to make the opioid overdose reversal drug more accessible to people who may need to use it on friends or family members battling addiction.

Five thousand packages of naloxone ready for distribution. Each package holds two doses and a card explaining how to administer the drug nasally.

They’re funded with $380,000 of a $5 million appropriation the state made for naloxone, which was designed to be used over two fiscal years.

Naloxone from that fund became available to first responders–like firefighters and police–last year. Governor Tom Wolf said they’ll also be able to get more on Thursday if they want.

“As of my first week in office, every Pennsylvanian has a prescription,” Wolf said. “There’s a standing order from the Physician General to every Pennsylvanian for naloxone.”

Naloxone isn’t a cure for opioid addiction. Wolf noted, the state tries to route people revived with the drug into treatment programs.

“It’s a chronic disease,” he said. “Someone who suffers from substance use disorder is going to be facing this for the rest of her or his life. But you have to be alive to be in treatment.”

Health Department officials said so far, over 30 thousand naloxone doses have been distributed using the budget funds, and they’ve been used to reverse around 4,500 overdoses.

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