BOISE, Idaho — With the coming of the new year comes new Idaho laws. One of the newly implemented laws will bring Idaho organizations a life-saving drug to save those experiencing a drug overdose.
A 2023 law changed how Idaho could distribute naloxone, the over-the-counter drug that reverses the deadly effects of an opioid overdose. The law made it so federally funded naloxone could only be distributed to Idaho law enforcement and medical agencies, previously there was more room for the state to distribute it.
Ross Edmunds is the administrator for the Division of Behavioral Health at Idaho Health and Welfare. He explains, after a several-month pause on the naloxone program it is now back with a new mechanism, a partnership with Kootenai County Fire & Rescue.
“I think that was the big change was making sure that we were partnering initially with those first responder organizations who can then make it available to other organizations and have that knowledge about how it works and how the first responder agency emergency response system works,” Edmunds said.
Yes, Kootenai is up in North Idaho, but they are set to distribute naloxone across the state to places that request. Edmunds says the requests are already flowing in.
“Partner with first responder organizations, with hotels, with bars, schools, health care organizations to distribute it broadly. So we can hopefully get as much as we can out there and have it available,” Edmunds said.
It’s not just about getting naloxone into areas that could be lifesaving.
“It's also about the education that can go with it so to partner with first responder organizations and have them help us distribute it to the communities. There is online training and we want to make that available. The other thing we want to do is anytime you do that, you don't want this to become a cycle,” Edmunds said. “You don't want a person to be constantly overdosing and have this be what they do. So we want to make sure we leave behind with them. Here's the services that are available to you. Here's how to access those services so hopefully we can prevent the next overdose.”
To order, organizations complete online request forms through either the Division of Behavioral Health or the Divisions of Public Health’s Drug Overdose Prevention Program, right on their webpages.
If your organization would also like training on how to administer naloxone, Kootenai Country Fire & Rescue will coordinate with your local Public Health District.
“Go to the pharmacy and get it yourself. But at the time of a crisis, to kind of say, you know, when you're dealing with somebody who's overdosing," Edmunds said. "Wait, I've got to run down to the corner pharmacy, pay for it. Come back. It's a little too late. So we want to make it as available as we can."
As captured in Idaho’s drug overdose dashboard, this is a growing problem with a growing need for naloxone. The drug makes a clear difference.
“Hundreds of lives. Our data suggests that, really, we've saved hundreds and thousands of lives if you look across the country. So a huge impact to this. Again, it's not a treatment, right? It's not a perfect solution. But we want to save people's lives so then they can get back to a place where they can get into treatment and get back with their families, get back to being a contributing member and successful in their lives,” Edmunds said.
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