April Babcock is a grieving mother on a mission—to save others from the pain she experienced on Jan. 26, 2019, when her son, Austen, took what he believed was cocaine. Unbeknownst to him, it was laced with a lethal dose of illicit fentanyl. He died shortly after. To raise awareness, Babcock started The Lost Voices…

The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision to give an opioid overdose antidote over-the-counter status could help as illicit fentanyl floods of the nation’s illegal drug market, but how helpful it will be could depend on how much it will cost. The FDA’s decision means sales of Narcan nasal spray would soon be allowed at…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved selling naloxone without a prescription, setting the overdose-reversing drug on course to become the first opioid treatment drug to be sold over the counter. It’s a move that some advocates have long sought as a way to improve access to a life-saving drug, though the exact…

An advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended that the opioid reversal nasal spray Narcan should become an over-the-counter drug. Narcan, or naxolone, is the most commonly sold medication to deal with opioid overdoses. Emergent BioSolutions Inc. submitted an application to the FDA late last year to allow it to sell generic…

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a motion Jan. 10 to make Naxalone readily available at juvenile rehabilitation hall centers. Naxalone, sold under the brand name Narcan, is administered as a nasal spray or injection to reverse an opioid drug, like fentanyl, overdose. The supervisors’ action is part of a larger effort…

“I don’t even know if I will be alive tomorrow. I might OD tonight,” Pete—a pseudonym—told The Epoch Times. “You are talking to a drug user right now and that’s the name of the game.” The 34-year-old comedian has been using the opiate fentanyl since the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic and commonly checks in…

A new law went into effect in California Jan. 1, requiring public universities to provide opioid reversal medication instruction and education during campus orientation. The new rules come after Sentate Bill (SB) 367 was introduced last year by California State Sen. Melissa Hurtado (D-Bakersfield). The bill was signed into law in August. Public universities are…

A Tavares, Florida police officer has her coworkers to thank for taking decisive, lifesaving action when she overdosed just days before Christmas. The officer was exposed to a “potent narcotic” and exhibited signs of an overdose, Tavares Police Department stated in a press release. Visceral body camera footage that is hard to watch shows the…

The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Dec. 20 to authorize funds for opioid blockers, such as Narcan, for Orange County school districts. Supervisor Don Wagner initiated the plan with an allocation of $120,000. Of the lump sum, $20,000 will go to each school district within his supervisorial 3rd district—encompassing Orange, Tustin, Villa Park,…

LOS ANGELES—The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a proposal Oct. 18 to place the overdose-reversal drug naloxone, or Narcan, at county libraries and train librarians on how to administer it. “Narcan is easy to use, anyone can carry it, and it saves lives,” Supervisor Janice Hahn, who introduced the motion, said in…