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New law makes it easier to buy naloxone at your pharmacy

James Morrison
/
Delaware Public Media
Naloxone

Gov. John Carney signed a bill Thursday that will make it easier to buy the opioid overdose-reversal drug naloxone at your neighborhood pharmacy.  

You don’t need a prescription to buy naloxone, but Delawareans are currently required to physically attend a one-hour training session before they can buy the drug.

 

The new law will allow people to do that training quickly online.

 

“And then they’ll bring into the pharmacist the documentation that they’ve done the training and they’ll get access to naloxone,” said Karyl Rattay, director of Delaware’s Division of Public Health.

 

The law also shields pharmacists from legal and professional repercussions for selling the drug, unless they’re found to be grossly negligent.

 

Rattay saidnaloxone is just one tool in the state’s fight against the opioid epidemic. But it’s one of the best for immediately saving lives.

 

Delaware emergency responders used naloxone 1,535 times last year and 866 times so far this year.

 

308 people died of drug overdoses in the First State last year.

The law takes effect later this summer.

 

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