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INTRODUCTION SECTION
The New Jersey “Opioid Antidote Prescription” bill is legislation sponsored in the New Jersey State Senate. The bill, numbered NJ S. 2323, requires a co-prescription of an opioid overdose agent, such as naloxone, with prescriptions for opioid medications for patients who have a high risk of overdosing and tightens restrictions on the dispensing of opioid medications in New Jersey.
Background
Since the late 1990s the United States has experienced an opiate abuse and addiction epidemic. The epidemic’s genesis was the over-prescription of opioid pain medication such as Oxycontin. From 1999 to 2017, more than 399,000 people died from drug overdoses that involved prescription and illicit opioids.[1]
The number one cause of accidental death in the United States is drug overdose. Within that statistic, opioids are the most common drug. Legislation requiring the co-prescription of opioid reversal medication with opioids is a state-based public health measure, and there are laws and pending legislation requiring co-prescription in several states.[2]
Naloxone is a pharmaceutical drug, available by prescription only, that reverses an opioid overdose quickly. Opiate drugs suppress the body’s respiratory system, and overdoses are fatal when they stop someone’s breathing. Naloxone restores normal respiration in an overdose victim.[3]
[1] doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm6751521e1
[2] https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2020/Bills/S2500/2323_I1.HTM
[3] https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/opioid-overdose-reversal-naloxone-narcan-evzio
See also
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References
External links
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