There is hope in the news that the leading version of naloxone, the No. 1 drug used to reverse opioid overdoses, will soon be available without a prescription. Making it easier to obtain the life-saving drug should save lives, but the devil, as they say, may be in the details.
We must continue fighting the national opioid crisis on several fronts. But while we work to stop the flood of opioids into the United States and into the hands of the many Americans who have become addicted to them, maybe we can at least stem the mounting toll of unnecessary deaths.
Drug overdoses are linked to more than 100,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, with opioids the main culprit. Recently, synthetic opioids lead the list of lethal overdoses. Fentanyl is worst of all.
