Making Narcan over-the-counter would be a step in the right direction, public health experts told The Daily Beast—but they question how much impact it will actually have in stemming the tide of opioid overdose deaths.
In the past 13 months Antonio Sanchez has watched three of his friends overdose from opioids. The first two times, Sanchez, 22, was able to revive them with Narcan, the life-saving drug that reverses the effects of opioid overdose, that his girlfriend had given him when she returned from rehab.
Naloxone, the generic version of Narcan, has been around since the 1950s. It is a “true antidote” to an opioid overdose, said Alexander Walley, a medical doctor and professor at Boston University who specializes in addiction research. Opioids like heroin and oxycodone stimulate receptors in the brain that produce effects including pain relief and euphoria, but they also suppress respiration, making it difficult to breathe.
That is the hope, at least. Some states have already made Naloxone free or lost-cost, said Elliott. In Massachusetts, for example, Narcan is already available in pharmacies without a prescription. But over-the-counter is just half the equation. Making Narcan available without a prescription means very little if people are not able to afford it. And it is expensive: Out of pocket, Narcan costs anywhere between $60 and $100 for two standard doses which are packaged together. “The costs are not disappearing. We saw a rise over the pandemic,” said Elliott.