Credit: Cardinal Health
The opiate overdoses crisis is not getting any better. Fatalities were at an all-time high in every Northeast Ohio county, and observers are predicting 2017 will bring more bad news. With that backdrop, Gov. John Kasich signed a bill yesterday that will increase access to the overdose-reversing drug naloxone — brand name Narcan.

The law will now make naloxone available to schools, homeless shelters, halfway houses and treatment centers, the AP reports. Broadly speaking, the law will strengthen partnerships between county boards of mental health and addictions services and those types of agencies or organizations. This follows an earlier law that allows pharmacists to dispense naloxone without a prescription.

The board of pharmacy has a list of Ohio pharmacies that offer naloxone.

Also included in the bill signed by Kasich is a requirement that pharmacy technicians register with the state of Ohio — something that historically has not been happening.

This article appears in Jan 4-10, 2017.

Eric Sandy is an award-winning Cleveland-based journalist. For a while, he was the managing editor of Scene. He now contributes jam band features every now and then.