Every five minutes an American dies from an opioid or fentanyl overdose. An FDA panel is recommending Narcan be sold over the counter, which experts say would reverse more overdoses and save more lives. Andy traces the line between opioid prescriptions, heroin, fentanyl, and tranq with Scott Hadland, a pediatrician and addiction specialist at Mass General Hospital, and Sarah Laurel, who overcame her own struggle with substance use disorder to eventually found an addiction recovery nonprofit in Philadelphia. They discuss whether the problem is getting better or worse, how to reduce stigma, and where to direct opioid overdose settlement funds.

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Check out these resources from today’s episode:

Learn more about the FDA panel’s recommendation to approve over-the-counter naloxone: https://www.statnews.com/2023/02/15/naloxone-otc-opioisa-fda-panel-recommends/
Find vaccines, masks, testing, treatments, and other resources in your community: https://www.covid.gov/
Order Andy’s book, “Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response”: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250770165

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Narcan: A Million Lives Worth Saving