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.”
Cape May – Governor Murphy says he doesn't know anything about the drones and doesn't know what they are doing but he does know that they are not dangerous. Does anyone feel better now?
