Naloxone Available OTC in Ohio

(Fall 2015) Naloxone, a drug that counteracts the effects of opioid overdose, will now be available at Ohio pharmacies without a prescription. This is the result of a law signed by Governor John Kasich. Now individuals given approval by doctors or other qualified individuals in the health field can obtain the drug over-the-counter. The measure also protects those authorizing and dispensing naloxone under these circumstances. Ohio’s law is patterned from a Kentucky law approved earlier this year.

The Ohio Board of Pharmacy built a specific website to help with the law’s enactment: www.pharmacy.ohio.gov/naloxone. The Board also established an emergency rule outlining the steps a pharmacy should follow when dispensing naloxone, which is listed on the web page. In addition, the new law permits a local board of health to sell naloxone at a discount to state or local law enforcement.

The new law has a positive impact on Project DAWN (Deaths Avoided with Naloxone) sites around the state, as a doctor is no longer required to be on location for a client to receive the drug. Instead, each site is simply required to create a written procedure, approved by a physician, giving staff authorization to distribute the antidote.

Nationwide, naloxone is responsible for saving the lives of approximately 27,000 individuals who would have otherwise died of an opioid overdose between 1996 and 2014. Although the practice of making naloxone available to those in the general public is growing, as of 2013 20 states had not implemented this system, and another nine had done so on a very limited basis.

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