If a single drug could immediately save the life of someone who stopped breathing from an asthma attack, and the drug had no risk of being abused and was easy to administer, it likely would be in the hands of every asthmatic and their family members.
If a single, simple shot or nasal spray could breathe new life into someone after their heart failed because of hypertensive heart disease, it would be described as a miracle drug. Its availability would give patients the chance to better manage their high blood pressure.
And people need those chances. Because they’re chronic conditions, asthma and hypertension last a long time or keep coming back. It’s the nature of the illnesses.
But there is no “take-home” drug that can quickly pull asthmatics or cardiac patients out of unconsciousness and buy them 30 to 40 minutes to get to a hospital — especially one that can be administered by a layperson and has no ill effects.
There is this type of revival medication, of course, for other patients: people who overdose on opioids such as morphine or heroin. It’s called naloxone, and it saves lives.
If Maine had a different governor, who didn’t hold the inexplicable opinion that naloxone just delays death, more people might be touting it as a wonder drug and rushing to get it to those with addiction and their loved ones.
Luckily, though, there are some people in leadership positions who understand the importance of allowing people to live a long and fulfilling life. When Gov. Paul LePage vetoed a bill in April to make naloxone available at a pharmacy without a prescription, the Legislature overrode it.
The Maine Health Equity Alliance started handing out free naloxone, which often goes by the brand name Narcan, from its offices in Bangor and Ellsworth.
The Bangor Police Department began working with Penobscot Community Health Care to get and know how to use nasal Narcan.
And now Attorney General Janet Mills has bought $76,500-worth of Narcan — 2,040 doses — for police across the state, drawing the money from an account funded by court settlements and under her control.
Some police departments already have the antidote, but her action will only make it easier for them to save lives. The agencies that participate must institute a policy regarding Narcan use, train their officers and have a standing order from a physician to administer it.
Of course administering naloxone shouldn’t happen in isolation. Treatment is needed next. But in Maine, as in many other states, it’s difficult to find help.
Only one in five Americans dealing with opioid addiction is receiving methadone or buprenorphine, two common anti-addiction medications, according to a November study by researchers at Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Barriers include a shortage of medical providers licensed and trained to provide the medications, a lack of insurance among those who need them and limited or no coverage from some insurance plans. The result is long waitlists of people with addictions who want to stop using drugs. Bangor’s three medication-assisted treatment centers are full.
Improving access to Narcan is a no brainer, and it’s heartening to see people taking initiative in the face of a lack of leadership from the governor’s office. But if it takes so much work to get a wonder drug out there, we fear tackling the larger, systemic challenges of access to treatment will come too little too late, if it comes at all.
