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Bullock Signs Bill Providing Better Access to Overdose Medication

Governor joins Republican Frank Garner to sign Help Save Lives from Overdose Act

By Justin Franz
Rep. Frank Garner, left, speaks about HB 333, the Help Save Lives from Overdose Act, alongside Gov. Steve Bullock during the ceremonial signing of the bill at Kalispell Regional Medical Center on May 30, 2017. Greg Lindstrom | Flathead Beacon

Surrounded by doctors and medical professionals from Kalispell Regional Healthcare, Gov. Steve Bullock signed into law legislation that will make it easier for first responders and others to access a drug to prevent opiate overdoses.

Bullock, who was joined at the signing by the bill’s author, Kalispell Republican Rep. Frank Garner, called prescription medication abuse an “invisible epidemic” that needs more attention from state officials.

“Opiate abuse is not a law enforcement issue, it’s a public health issue,” the governor said moments before signing the bill on May 30 at Kalispell Regional Healthcare.

The number of overdoses and overdose deaths in the United States has rapidly increased in recent years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2014, there were 28,000 opioid-related overdose deaths in the United States. The following year, that number had jumped to 33,000. The number of heroin-related deaths has tripled from 2010, with 10,500 people dying in 2014 and almost 13,000 in 2015.

When someone is overdosing from heroin or prescription pain medication, his or her breathing slows down. However, the impacts of an overdose can be reversed with a drug called Narcan. The drug is widely available in the United States but less so in Montana, which until recently was one of only three states that had not passed laws granting easy access to the drug. But House Bill 333, dubbed the Help Save Lives from Overdose Act, changes that. Now it will be easier for first responders and friends and family members of users to gain access to Narcan so they can administer it to someone who is having an overdose.

“Just one shot of Narcan can buy enough time to get someone to medical treatment,” said Mindy Fuzesy, a neonatal intensive care unit nurse at KRH and a member of a recently established community drug task force.

Fuzesy and a small group of KRH employees established a drug task force last year after seeing a startling increase of infants going through opiate withdrawals in the neonatal intensive care unit. The task force includes members of the medical, law enforcement and public health communities and is searching for ways to combat the growing issue. Garner credits the task force for helping him push forward legislation make it easier to access Narcan.

“This legislation will save lives,” Garner said.

Bullock said easier access to Narcan is just one way to combat the growing drug epidemic and that there is more to be done. He added that it’s an issue that everyone in the state can get behind.

Bullock also addressed the ongoing debate about health care in Washington, D.C. after local hospital officials asked what they could do.

Bullock urged them to get involved.

“There is going to be a lot of discussion about healthcare reform and it’s so important for organizations like Kalispell Regional Healthcare to be involved with that debate,” he said.