Some select pharmacies in Washington, D.C. are offering Naloxone, which is known as an overdose-reversing drug, free of charge starting from August 31, according to an announcement by D.C. health officials.
The drug can be found in more than a dozen pharmacies in the District.
“This pilot allows us to test and identify new channels of Narcan distribution as part of our commitment to combat the opioid epidemic,” D.C. Health Director Dr. LaQuandra S. Nesbitt said in a statement.
“Making Narcan Nasal Spray more widely available to residents through our partnership with local pharmacies is also a big step forward in Mayor Bowser’s plan to reduce opioid use and misuse and to reduce opioid-related deaths by 50 percent by 2020,” she added.
The move comes as a result of the program “LIVE. LONG. DC” which was launched to reduce and eventually end the District’s opioid epidemic. The strategic plan consists of prevention, treatment, and recovery supports centering around “reducing opioid use, misuse and opioid-related deaths by 50% by 2020.”
Following the release of the program in late 2018, a number of achievements were obtained including the reversal of 85 percent of all reported overdose cases via use of Naloxone and the reduction of the opioid-related fatality rate by 31 percent. A total of 213 people died from opioid overdose in D.C. last year.
The pharmacies that take part in the free Naloxone program are as follows:
Morgan Pharmacy (3001 P St. NW)
Grubbs Care Pharmacy NE (326 E. Capitol St. NE)
Grubbs Care Pharmacy NW (1517 17th St. NW)
Grubbs Care Pharmacy SE (1800 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE)
Kalorama Pharmacy (1631 Kalorama Road. NW)
Good Care Pharmacy (2910 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE)
Excel Pharmacy (3923 S. Capitol St. SW)
CVS No. 22 (320 40th St. NE)
CVS No. 1340 (845 Bladensburg Road NE)
CVS No. 1354 (2601 Connecticut Ave. NW)
CVS No. 1360 (2834 Alabama Ave. SE)
CVS No. 1364 (6514 Georgia Ave. NW)
CVS No. 2834 (3031 14th St. NW)
Safeway No. 1445 (2845 Alabama Ave. SE)
Walgreens No. 15360 (801 Seventh St. NW)
Walgreens No. 16049 – Howard University Hospital (2041 Georgia Ave. NW)
Giant No. 384 (1535 Alabama Ave. SE)