COLCHESTER — Gov. Peter Shumlin and other officials are applauding the pharmacy chain CVS Health for making naloxone, a drug effective at reversing an opiate overdose, available without a prescription at its Vermont locations.
Previously obtaining naloxone from a CVS pharmacy required an individual prescription, but now through standing orders from physicians CVS will sell naloxone over the counter for $60 to $90 per two-dose kit at its eight locations across the state, said Tom Davis, vice president of pharmacy services for CVS Health.
Medicaid, the low-income health program, will cover the drug’s cost for beneficiaries, state officials said at a Wednesday news conference in front of the pharmacy desk at CVS’ Colchester location.
Vermont is among 23 states where CVS Health will make naloxone available over the counter by the end of the month. That number will expand to 35 by the end of the year, Davis said.
The state provides naloxone to drug users, their families and friends for free through five substance abuse programs.
Vermont has distributed 7,000 naloxone kits from those locations since 2013, and people have reported using those to reverse at least 400 overdoses, according to the governor’s news release. That figure is almost certainly low; Safe Recovery in Burlington, the largest of Vermont’s naloxone distribution sites, recorded its 494th reported reversal in early February.
Opiates are depressants that slow a user’s respiration, and an overdose becomes fatal when breathing shuts down. Naloxone, often referred to by the brand name Narcan, works by blocking opiate receptors in the brain, allowing a person to start breathing again.
Workers in the substance abuse field say the drug is an important tool in promoting recovery. “It may take a second or third chance, but it’s an opportunity” for people to turn their lives around, said John Tracy, a top aide to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who joined Shumlin for the news conference.
The governor acknowledged it’s still too difficult for addicts to get into treatment programs once they’re ready to seek help, especially in Chittenden County, where recent figures show people wait close to a year for a treatment slot in the region’s only medication-assisted treatment clinic. Shumlin said part of the problem is there is no such clinic in Franklin County, something his administration hopes to address by opening one in St. Albans next year.
The governor also lauded the Obama administration for a proposed Department of Health and Human Services rule that would allow each physician to prescribe treatment drugs to 200 patients, doubling the current limit. If adopted, the rule could increase access to medication-assisted opiate treatment in Vermont and nationwide, Shumlin said.
Some treatment providers in the region say increasing the patient limit won’t necessarily increase access, because many doctors prescribing treatment drugs don’t want to take that many patients. Of the 30 doctors in Chittenden County offering medication-assisted treatment, more than half were treating fewer than 10 patients as of September, according to Health Department figures.
Health Commissioner Harry Chen said that while a “culture change” needs to occur within the medical community when it comes to treating drug users, the proposed rule change would allow doctors who are already “all in” to have an even greater impact.
Shumlin said Vermont was in a “lonely” position in late 2013 when he made addressing the opiate crisis a top priority. The state has worked steadily since then to increase access to treatment, reduce the stigma associated with addiction and make naloxone more readily available, Shumlin said.
The governor said Vermont has been a leader in that regard, noting it was the first state to require its state police troopers carry naloxone in 2014. Vermont’s embrace of the lifesaving drug is in sharp contrast to states like Maine, where Gov. Paul LePage has resisted making it widely accessible, Shumlin said.
However, two years before Vermont gave out its first dose of naloxone through a 2013 pilot program, health officials in Massachusetts were marking their 1,000th reported overdose reversal through a similar program.
Asked if he was being revisionist in describing Vermont as a leader in using naloxone as a public health tool, Shumlin said Vermont shouldn’t be measuring itself against other states, despite having done so himself moments earlier.
“I’m not measuring the past. I’m focused on the future,” Shumlin said.
