People with a friend or family member addicted to opioids can now go to an Oregon pharmacy and get a prescription for Naloxone.
Naloxone blocks the effects of an overdose from drugs including heroin, oxycodone and percocet.
Anyone who is worried someone is in danger of overdosing can now get a prescription and be trained to administer the drug.
Mark Watt, the executive director of the Oregon Pharmacy Board, described the process.
“You come in and you tell the pharmacy that you want it. They would then hand this seven-page document to the patient and ask them to sit down and read it," he said.
"And then the person would sign the back page of that document attesting that they’ve read and understood the training.”
The prescription can be administered using a syringe or a nasal spray attached to the syringe.
Oregon has a Good Samaritan law that affords immunity from prosecution to anyone administering Naloxone in this way.
Copyright 2016 Oregon Public Broadcasting
