U.S. - Overdose Antidote Is Supposed to Be Easy to Get in New York City. It's Not.

S.J.B.

S.J.B.

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Overdose Antidote Is Supposed to Be Easy to Get. It's Not.
Annie Correal
The New York Times
April 12th, 2018

In 2015, when they unveiled the city's plan to battle opioid-related deaths, Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, said that from that day on, New Yorkers would be able to get the overdose-reversing drug naloxone at participating pharmacies without a prescription.

"Anyone who fears they will one day find their child, spouse or sibling collapsed on the floor and not breathing now has the power to walk into a neighborhood pharmacy and purchase the medication that can reverse that nightmare," Ms. McCray said, with the mayor by her side.

But three years later, an examination by The New York Times has found that of the 720 pharmacies on the city's list of locations that provide the drug, only about a third actually had it and would dispense it without a prescription. The list is used on the city's website, the NYC Health Map, the Stop OD NYC app and when someone calls 311.

Phone calls placed to every pharmacy on the list last month found compliance with the program to be spotty, at best.

In the Bronx, which is battling a surge in heroin use and where more people died of opioid-related overdoses than in any other borough in 2016, only about a quarter of the more than 100 pharmacies on the list had the drug and followed the protocol. Requests for it were often met with bewilderment.
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Needle exchanges are the only reliable or cost effective places where the public can get Narcan.

Trying to fill a script for it from a GP required call almost ten different pharmacies before I found one that had it in stock. And is I hadn’t used insurance it would have been cost prohibitive.

The whole naloxone situation is pretty fucked up. At least they’re available at many needle exchanges, but there are only so many of these around and a lot of people don’t feel comfortable using their services.
 
well, technically it was prescribed to a family member :)

Technically anyone who is prescribed opioids is supposed to also have naloxone on hand, so I’m not too worried about it either way.
 
No surprise tbh. NYC has a terrible record with dealing with public health emergencies. Just look at how they handled the AIDS crisis of the 1980s---they literally refused to do anything until it literally overwhelmed their hospitals and public services. If you're looking for compassion in NYC you're going to be sorely disappointed.
 
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