Tessie Castillo: Overdose rescue kits save lives

I applaud the Aug. 4 Point of View “The public health issue of our time.” Raising awareness of prescription drug abuse is one of the most pressing issues of our time.

Each year North Carolina loses over 1,100 residents to drug overdose. Each of these losses is undeniably tragic, even more so because each was preventable.

In 2013 North Carolina passed a law increasing access to a medicine, naloxone, which reverses a drug overdose. This medicine in now available to anyone in the state at no cost and comes with training on how to recognize and respond to a drug overdose.

Over 12,000 of these overdose rescue kits have been distributed across the state, resulting in at least 766 lives saved to date.

If someone is at risk for drug overdose or know someone at risk, there is no excuse not to have one.

This story was originally published August 7, 2015 at 6:49 PM with the headline "Tessie Castillo: Overdose rescue kits save lives."