Fighting opioid addiction by making the antidote available to all (WVRO Radio – Take Care)

Monday Apr 17th, 2017

The opioid epidemic has torn apart communities across the country. One city has decided to take what some might call extraordinary measures to help fight fatal overdoses and save lives. Baltimore now has a program that makes the fast-acting opioid antidote naloxone, or Narcan, available to every resident in the city.

This week on WRVO's health and wellness show "Take Care," hosts Lorraine Rapp and Linda Lowen speak with Dr. Leana Wen, Baltimore's health commissioner and an emergency medicine physician, about why she feels the problem of heroin addiction makes this program necessary.

Listen to the entire story.

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When I’ve asked experts about these approaches, it’s not that any of them are bad. It’s that they fall short. For instance, Leana Wen, the former health commissioner of Baltimore (and soon-to-be president of Planned Parenthood), said that the Support for Patients and Communities Act “is simply tinkering around the edges.”

Read the entire story.

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