AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine’s law to allow access to overdose-reversing medicine without a medical provider’s prescription is missing a key phrase that would actually allow the reform, according to the state’s attorney general’s office and mental health and addiction groups.
The Senate, on Monday, and the House, last week, approved passage of a bill adding the word “prescribe” to the 2016 law.
The 2016 law says pharmacists may dispense naloxone, also known as Narcan, to individuals at high risk of opioid-related overdose and their family or friend. But the state Attorney General’s office said the word “dispensing” means delivering a prescription drug with a prescription, and worked with state regulators on a new bill to allow pharmacists to prescribe naloxone.
“With no apparent federal appetite for reclassifying naloxone hydrochloride as an (over-the-counter) drug, the only solution appeared to be to give pharmacists the narrow authority to prescribe naloxone,” said Assistant Attorney General Andrew Black in written testimony.
The bill heads to Gov. Paul LePage’s desk.
The Republican governor vetoed the 2016 law and has repeatedly argued that naloxone extends lives until the next overdose.
Addiction and mental health groups say the law’s wording has left pharmacists in limbo. Last year, Maine saw 376 reported overdose deaths, and the average age of heroin and morphine deaths is 39.
