Pharmacists To Begin Dispensing Anti-Overdose Drug

Mike Mozart / CC

Illinois pharmacists will soon be able to dispense an overdose reversal drug over the counter without a prescription.  A law passed last year allows pharmacists to dispense naloxone kits after first taking a short web-based training course.  The drug can help people in the throes of an overdose from heroin or prescription painkillers, which killed 17-hundred people in Illinois in 2014.  A druggist will be able to sell the kits to people at risk of overdose, their family and friends and to first responders and school nurses.