Question: News coverage of International Overdose Awareness Day (808ne.ws/aware) mentioned a treatment to reverse the effects of an overdose. Can a family member get this medication in case |of emergency? Or is it only for use by first-responders?
Answer: “Pharmacists in Hawaii can prescribe and dispense naloxone to anyone at-risk for an opioid overdose and their loved ones,” according to the Hawaii Opioid Initiative’s website, hawaii opioid.org. So yes to your first question, and no to your second.
“The medication naloxone has been proven to stop the effects of opioid overdose and save lives, and it is legal to carry in the state of Hawaii. Also called Narcan, naloxone is an inexpensive, FDA-approved generic drug that works to reverse an opioid overdose, including fentanyl overdose, by restoring breath to unconscious overdose victims. Naloxone is not psychoactive, has no potential for misuse or abuse, and side effects are rare,” the website says.
Opioids include prescription painkillers such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine and morphine, as well as street drugs such as heroin and the synthetic opioid fentanyl, which the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration describes as “the deadliest drug threat facing this country.” On Tuesday the DEA warned that drug cartels are trafficking “rainbow fentanyl” that resembles brightly colored candy pellets or sidewalk chalk to drive addiction among young people (808ne.ws/fent).
The HOI, a collaboration of public health, public safety, health care and other professionals, says that anyone who takes opioids should also have naloxone on hand; it is available as a nasal spray or an injection. The HOI website has a map of Hawaii pharmacies that carry it; click on “Prevent Overdose” on the homepage to see the map.
Most insurance plans are supposed to cover naloxone, however a person cannot use their own insurance to cover the cost for someone else, Nikos A. Leverenz, a spokesperson for the Hawaii Health and Harm Reduction Center, said last month, in response to another reader who wanted to obtain the overdose antidote for a loved one — in that case it was a mother whose teenage daughter was headed to college on the mainland.
HHHRC offers nasal naloxone to the general public for free; place a request at hhhrc.org/naloxone for two doses to be mailed to a Hawaii address. “We encourage anyone who uses opioids or is around someone who uses opioids to obtain it. Having naloxone on hand is a key to preventing fatal overdose. We hope that those who use opioids do not do so alone, to the extent possible, and that they also refrain from using alcohol (which can result in respiratory depression),” he said in an email.
Q: Regarding the mortgage relief, what is the income limit?
A: Relief for Oahu homeowners who fell behind on their mortgage payments because of the pandemic is available for households with annual income up to 150% of the area median income as defined by a federal housing agency. However, funding priority will be given to households at 100% AMI or below. For a household of four, those figures are $195,900 and $130,600, respectively. See hawaiian council.org/oahuhome for more information, including the income limits for smaller and larger households.
Mahalo
Mahalo to the family who moved our beloved dog off the road after he was hit by a car. They went out of their way to find us, his heartbroken owners who had been looking for him from the moment he escaped our fenced yard. It was a terrible night and we did not thank them properly at the time. They were not the ones who hit him, yet they were the ones who stopped to try to help. — Grieving reader
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
