Prescription drugs of every stripe are godsends for people who need them.
However, there always have been those who are careless, or take advantage of circumstances to tread the wrong side of the legal divide.
Opioids are among drugs most often abused, because of the euphoric effect they present for some people.
Opioid abuse can be a killer, and because of that the Kansas House last week passed a bill to expand access to a drug that first responders can use to reverse the effect of an overdose.
Statistics bear out the need for attention. Between 2013 and 2015 the prescription opioid overdose death rate increased by 28 percent in the state. The Associated Press reported Kansas is one of only three states that don’t allow first responders to carry and administer emergency treatments such as naloxone, which blocks the debilitating effects of opioids.
The bill should weave its way into law.
The vast majority of patients who are prescribed hydrocodone or methadone or any other opioid, use the medicine correctly, and live better. But to forfeit a life from an overdose because an antidote isn’t readily available is a crying shame, and should be corrected.
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— Bob Johnson
