Opioid use causes about 2,000 deaths per week in the United States and is already the leading cause of unnatural deaths among Americans ages 18 to 45. The use of drugs like fentanyl is completely uncontrolled.
Given these figures published by Uppers, the authorities had to authorize the sale of a drug called naloxone – Narcan is the most commonly used trade name – which is now sold in pharmacies across the country and is even available in vending machines located in “hot zones” of consumption .
“Today’s approval of over-the-counter naloxone nasal spray will help improve access, increase the number of places where it is available, and help reduce opioid overdose deaths across the country. “We encourage the manufacturer to prioritize the accessibility of the product in order to make it available as quickly as possible and at an affordable price,” the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported in a statement.
For many, as the same media has highlighted, it is the perfect crime. Big pharmaceutical companies influenced politicians and health care institutions to prescribe opioids for pain in the 1990s, causing an epidemic. Now, 30 years later, hundreds of thousands of people have become hooked and addicted.
The scenario has now gotten completely out of control and pharmaceutical companies are not supplying the cure, but rather an antidote to overdoses: naloxone. This is a spray medication that quickly reverses an opioid overdose by blocking its effects by simply holding the dispenser to the subject’s nose and squeezing to release the substance. In Los Angeles alone, 8,277 deaths were prevented in 2022, according to the Los Angeles Community Health Project.
