New Jersey expands access to overdose antidote naloxone to mark Overdose Awareness Day

opens in a new windowNew Jersey expands access to overdose antidote naloxone to mark Overdose Awareness Day / News 12 / 8/30/2021

By News 12 Staff

Tuesday marked Overdose Awareness Day. The Murphy administration marked the day by expanding access to naloxone – a drug that helps reverse an opioid overdose.Licensed pharmacists can dispense naloxone without a prescription. EMTs can also administer it.

On Overdose Awareness Day, we’re taking bold action to end our opioid epidemic – by drastically expanding access to naloxone, an emergency overdose reversal medication, and enhancing the New Jersey Overdose Data Dashboard.

Learn more: https://t.co/4Wicl67e35 pic.twitter.com/e5MDSKt7um

— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) August 31, 2021

The state Department of Health also launched an overdose data dashboard.Overdose prevention advocates marked the day in Ocean County with a roundtable discussion with Democratic Rep. Andy Kim. The event was designed to advocate for more state and federal spending on drug addiction treatment and prevention.”Part of my own journey as a person in recovery has been realizing that my way to recover is not everybody’s way to recover. We need to have more options out there for everybody who wants to live,” says Heather Ogden with Behavioral Health New Jersey. “Because that’s what this comes down to. It’s that over the course of the pandemic we went from losing eight New Jerseyans to 10 New Jerseyans a day. A day.”The New Jersey Organizing Project advocates for access to opioid treatment for all people regardless of income and health insurance status.