CA Overdose Treatment Bill Signed by Governor (from Harm Reduction Coalition)

[pinto]

CA Overdose Treatment Bill Signed by Governor!!

October 11th, 2007

SACRAMENTO – California Senate Bill (SB) 767, the Overdose Treatment Liability Act, was signed by Governor Schwarzenegger today, after passing unanimously through the California legislature. Senator Ridley Thomas' bill was co-sponsored by the Harm Reduction Coalition (HRC), the County of Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles Overdose Taskforce.

SB 767 creates a 3-year pilot project in seven counties: Alameda, Fresno, Humboldt, Los Angeles, Mendocino, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz, to authorize overdose prevention programs and protect providers who prescribe take-home naloxone, a medication used to reverse overdoses, to people who use opiates such as heroin and methadone. Clinicians were concerned about civil or criminal liability if a patient uses his or her naloxone on someone else. Because of this concern there weren't enough clinicians willing to prescribe naloxone for all the agencies that want to incorporate overdose programs into their services. This does not prevent other counties from setting up programs, but the liability limitation would not apply until the program goes statewide.

"This groundbreaking legislation will save lives in California," said Hilary McQuie of the Harm Reduction Coalition. "Death by drug overdose has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, and we know how to prevent it. Giving greater access to the tools people need to take care of themselves is the core of good public health practice."

Overdose is the leading cause of death among people who inject drugs and, according to the FDA, an increasing number of people prescribed opioid pain medications, such as methadone, are overdosing due to accidental misuse.

Overdose prevention programs that include naloxone distribution are spreading across the country, and primarily reach people through syringe exchange programs. Since November 2003 the Harm Reduction Coalition’s Drug Overdose Prevention & Education (DOPE) Project has collaborated with the San Francisco Department of Public Health to provide overdose training and naloxone prescriptions to over 800 drug users and has heard back from over 200 of them that they have used naloxone to reverse an overdose.


http://www.harmreduction.org/

[Kiouni]

1. Great Idea and why not

Naloxone doesn't really have any side effects that I know of. And if you give to someone who isn't ODing well, nothing happens.

[pinto]

2. It's a good step. Take home naloxone has saved lives, as noted,

and is good public health approach to minimize opiate OD's. (aside) Most opiate OD's happen at home or on the street, and the resistance, or inability, to call 911 is pretty evident. This is a stop gap measure, for sure,but that is the focus of harm reduction. Save lives first.

Thanks for your response.