John Oliver: You Had Me at Over ‐​the‐​Counter Naloxone

Jeffrey A. SingerJohn Oliver made an excellent case forshifting from a  war on drugs to a war on drug related deaths on the March 27, 2022 edition ofLast Week Tonight on HBO. You can view ithere.In a  little over 15 minutes, Oliver explained the rationale behind the harm reduction strategy: realism. Harm reduction advocates understand we will never attain a drug‐​free society, and that it therefore makes sense to make illicit drug use safer.Oliver called for the Food and Drug Administration to make the opioid overdose antidote naloxone an over ‐​the‐​counter drug, as I have been sayingsince 2018. In 2019, Cato adjunct scholarDavid Hyman and I  conducted a Capitol Hill Briefing to make the case to congressional staff, which included a naloxone training session.Oliver debunked themyth, popularized on TV dramas, that even close proximity to fentanyl can cause an innocent bystander to die from an overdose.He mentioned the benefits of syringe services programs, also referred to as a “needle exchange.” In January 2020, then‐​Surgeon General Jerome Adams and University of Southern California Medical School Professor Ricky D. Bluthenthaladdressed a  Cato audience supporting that strategy.Oliver discussed the benefits ofsafe consumptions sites and how the so ‐​called “Crack House Statute” prevents them from saving lives in the U.S. I moderated an excellentpanel discussion on that subject at a  harm reduction event in Cato’s Hayek Auditorium i...

Source: Cato-at-liberty - March 28, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs