TRENTON – With well over 60,000 drug overdose deaths taking place throughout the country each year – the majority involving opioids – a bill, sponsored by three Assembly Democrats, to require medical practitioners to prescribe an opioid antidote to certain high-risk patients was signed into law April 19.
According to a release, under the law (formerly bill A-3869/S-2323), practitioners who prescribe opioids to patients with a history of a substance use disorder, a daily opioid prescription greater than 90 morphine milligram equivalents (MME), or a concurrent benzodiazepine prescription must also give their patient a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved product that can treat/reverse opioid overdoses, such as Naloxone.
Upon the bill becoming law, Assembly sponsors John Armato (D-2nd), Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-37th) and Anthony Verrelli (D-15th) issued the following joint statement:
“It is always a tragedy whenever lives are lost to drug overdoses. It is even more tragic when you consider just how many of those lives could have been saved through access to overdose-reversal products.
“We need to do everything in our power to help give people the resources they need to combat accidental overdoses. When it comes to overdoses – every second is absolutely critical. Prescribing Naloxone to at-risk patients taking opioid pain-killers for chronic or acute pain will ensure this life-saving product is immediately available in the event of an emergency.”
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