Prescribe Naloxone with opioids to save lives
Attorney General Tish James has quickly become a national leader in the fight against the worst crisis of overdose and addition.
Her track record includes aggressive litigation to hold drug manufacturers and distributors responsible for peddling obscene amounts of addictive pills into our communities. She is also correctly calling for the federal government to remove barriers to medication-assisted treatment — a critical tool in addiction care.
New York has already taken steps to increase access to treatment, including provisions passed by the Legislature to eliminate prior approval for medication-assisted treatment and to make all formulations of addiction medications available to people covered by Medicaid. In the face of the current public health emergency, Gov. Andrew Cuomo should sign this critical reform into law without delay.
The one antidote to opioids that can be prescribed is Naloxone. It is the reason many people are surviving what once would have been a deadly overdose. Enacting a law that requires co-prescribing Naloxone whenever opioids are prescribed to at-risk patients is another key policy action the state should take to support reducing mortality rates and helping people recover.
These reforms align perfectly with the attorney general’s own mantra that the crisis demands action from every angle. The prevention, treatment and recovery community welcomes the attorney general’s leadership and partnership as we all work to save lives and end the pandemic of overdose and addiction. John Coppola Albany Executive Director, New York Association of Addiction Services and Professionals