What is Naloxone?
Naloxone saves lives, it can reverse an overdose.
Get Naloxone By Mail
NEXT Distro is an online and mail-based harm reduction platform designed to reduce opioid overdose death, prevent injection-related disease transmission, and improve the lives of people who use drugs.
Find Naloxone in Maryland
Please see the section on the left of the page “Information for Community Members”
Naloxone is a life-saving medication that can quickly restore the breathing of a person experiencing an opioid overdose. Opioids are a group of drugs that include heroin and prescription medications like oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine, fentanyl and methadone. Naloxone is available as a generic drug or under the brand names NARCAN® and EVZIO®.
A person-specific paper or electronic prescription is not required to dispense under this standing order, and an individual is not required to have previously received training or education on opioid overdose response to be dispensed naloxone. An individual prescribed and dispensed naloxone under this standing order may possess naloxone and the necessary supplies for its administration and administer it to anyone they believe may be experiencing an opioid overdose.
Naloxone does NOT:
Cause an addiction
Enable or encourage someone’s drug use
Cause someone to get a high
Have much potential to cause harm when administered appropriately, even if the person is not actually experiencing an opioid overdose.
Maryland Department of Health has authorized the Daniel Carl Torsch Foundation (DCTF) to dispense Naloxone and also to conduct an educational training program (Overdose Response Program ORP) using a core curriculum that includes information and training on:
prescription and non-pharmaceutical opioids;
how to recognize and respond to an opioid overdose;
proper rescue breathing technique; and
how to properly administer naloxone and care for the individual until emergency medical help arrives.
The training also stresses the importance of calling 911 for the person in distress and reporting the naloxone administration event to the Maryland Poison Center.
When available, free take-home overdose prevention kits that includes at least 2 doses of naloxone are dispensed at group or 1:1 training sessions.
Contact DCTF if interested in training. You may also go to a pharmacy and request a prescription of naloxone. See additional information below.
Statewide Standing Order for Pharmacy Naloxone Dispensing
On June 1, 2019, Dr. Jinlene Chan, MDH Assistant Secretary, issued an updated statewide standing order (replacing Dr. Howard Haft’s expired standing order) allowing Maryland-licensed pharmacists to dispense Naloxone to anyone who may be at risk for opioid overdose or in a position to assist someone believed to be experiencing opioid overdose. A person-specific paper or electronic prescription is not required for a pharmacist to dispense Naloxone under the standing order.
As authorized by this law, the standing order allows pharmacists to dispense Naloxone to anyone regardless of whether the person has previously been trained under ORP or received any training in opioid overdose response.
NOTE: The statewide standing order acts only as a prescription for Naloxone and does not cover payment to a pharmacy for the medication or supplies needed for its use.
To read the entire standing order - Click here to download PDF