Is Naloxone a lifesaving substance?

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Vial of Naloxone opioid overdose medication.

Opioid overdoses are surging in Mexico, but naloxone, cheap and readily available just over the border, costs $25 a dose and requires a prescription.

CIUDAD JUÁREZ, México — (VICE.COM).- People in northern Mexico are dying from drug overdoses in record numbers because the Mexican government won’t give them naloxone, which is readily available across the border for cheap.

The lifesaving drug naloxone, used to reverse opioid overdoses, is highly controlled in Mexico because it’s considered a psychoactive substance. 

That makes it expensive and hard to find, even for emergency services and hospitals. Naloxone costs around 500 Mexican pesos ($25) a dose and requires a doctor’s prescription, while the same medicine is available just across the border for as low as $2 a dose and is readily found in paramedic kits. (It’s best known in the U.S. under the brand name Narcan.)

If Mexico continues to restrict naloxone as a controlled substance, people will keep dying from overdoses all over the country, said Chávez, urging the government to “reevaluate its classification” and find a way to allow organizations like his to legally import it. 

Click here to read the complete original article on VICE.COM

The Chihuahua Post