NM State Health Officials Encourage Use of Narcan

June 22--Medicaid will now pay for a medication that serves as an antidote for drug overdoses, a move intended to reduce the high death rate among New Mexicans who use prescription pain killers.

The drug naloxone has been used for years by hospitals and paramedics to revive overdose victims.

State health officials, in announcing the change last week, want more medical providers to write prescriptions for the drug and want to encourage more pharmacies to stock it, said Dr. Mike Landen, state epidemiologist for the New Mexico Department of Health.

"We're hoping that the availability will increase substantially and that more and more people who need naloxone will have access to it," he said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that New Mexico had the second-highest overdose death rate in the country in 2012, according to the most recent figures available. That year, drug overdoses killed 486 New Mexicans, and more than half those deaths involved prescription drugs.

Naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan, is sprayed into the nose of someone overdosing on opioid drugs, such as heroin, and common prescription pain killers, such as oxycontin and hydrocodone.

The Department of Health describes naloxone as an antidote for opioid overdose that reverses respiratory problems associated with toxic exposure to narcotics. Naloxone is not a controlled substance and can be prescribed to at-risk patients.

The state Department of Health distributes free naloxone rescue kits to heroin addicts through its harm-reduction programs, Landen said.

Health officials hope the Medicaid reimbursement will help make naloxone more widely available to people who use high doses of prescription pain killers, he said.

Increasing the number of pharmacies that stock naloxone is key to increasing its availability, officials said.

But the medicine is carried now by only five New Mexico pharmacies.

Retail pharmacy chains are reluctant to stock naloxone rescue kits because they fear legal liability for the product, officials said.

Dale Tinker, executive director of the New Mexico Pharmacists Association, said lawyers for the chains are reviewing their policies for selling naloxone. He said he did not know when, or if, pharmaceutical chains will approve sale of the medication.

James Graham, a spokesman for Walgreen Co., issued a statement saying that Walgreens plans to make naloxone available at select locations in New Mexico. The statement provided no details.

The state's pharmacist association launched a training program in March that authorizes pharmacists to prescribe naloxone and to train patients and family members on how to administer the drug,

About 90 pharmacists have completed the training since March, he said.

"Our goal is to be able to get this life-saving product to those who are at risk for overdose death," Tinker said.

Copyright 2014 - Albuquerque Journal, N.M.