Pharmacist’s Role in Increasing Access to Opioid Overdose Reversal Drug

As the opioid overdose epidemic continues to take hundreds of lives each week, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy^® (NABP^®) has issued a policy statement promoting an active role for pharmacists in expanding access to the opioid overdose reversal drug, naloxone. Nearly 17,000 people died from an overdose involving an opioid analgesic in 2011, four times the number of prescription opioid-related deaths in 1999. State-approved naloxone programs prepare laypersons and emergency responders to administer naloxone to individuals who are experiencing an overdose, with many state laws now allowing pharmacists to dispense the drug to family and friends of a person at risk.

Recognizing that pharmacists can play an important role in such programs, NABP has issued the following policy statement: