The District will offer the overdose-reversing drug Naloxone for free at more than a dozen pharmacies, D.C. health officials announced Friday.
The pilot program will begin Saturday.
Naloxone can temporarily reverse the effects of opioids such as heroin, fentanyl methadone and morphine. It will be available at participating pharmacies in the form of Narcan nasal spray, the D.C. Department of Health said.
"This pilot allows us to test and identify new channels of Narcan distribution as part of our commitment to combat the opioid epidemic," said Dr. LaQuandra S. Nesbitt, director of D.C. Health, in a statement. "Making Narcan Nasal Spray more widely available to residents through our partnership with local pharmacies is also a big step forward in Mayor Bowser's plan to reduce opioid use and misuse and to reduce opioid-related deaths by 50 percent by 2020."
Participating pharmacies will be located in all eight wards. The locations are:
- Morgan Pharmacy (3001 P St. NW)
- Grubbs Care Pharmacy NE (326 E. Capitol St. NE)
- Grubbs Care Pharmacy NW (1517 17th St. NW)
- Grubbs Care Pharmacy SE (1800 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE)
- Kalorama Pharmacy (1631 Kalorama Road NW)
- Good Care Pharmacy (2910 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE)
- Excel Pharmacy (3923 S. Capitol St. SW)
- CVS #22 (320 40th St. NE)
- CVS #1340 (845 Bladensburg Road NE)
- CVS #1354 (2601 Connecticut Ave. NW)
- CVS #1360 (2834 Alabama Ave. SE)
- CVS #1364 (6514 Georgia Ave. NW)
- CVS #2834 (3031 14th St. NW)
- Safeway #1445 (2845 Alabama Ave. SE)
- Walgreens #15360 (801 7th St. NW)
- Walgreens #16049 – Howard University Hospital (2041 Georgia Ave. NW)
- Giant #384 (1535 Alabama Ave. SE)
Pharmacy staff will also provide instructions on administering the nasal spray, as well as information on addiction treatment and recovery.
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In addition, people getting opioid prescriptions filled at participating pharmacies will also receive Narcan kits, health officials said.
Health officials said there were 213 opioid-related deaths in the District last year and 279 in 2017. As of May 31, there have been 72 opioid-related deaths in D.C. this year.
