It's a sad statistic, nearly every day, one person dies from a drug overdose in Baltimore.
"In 2014 we had more people die from drug and alcohol overdose in our city then died from homicide," said Baltimore City Health Commissioner, Dr. Leana Wen.
Lately, heroin is the drug of choice. And it's a public health emergency in the city. Which is why officials say the prescription drug Naloxone should be in every medicine cabinet. The medication completely reverses an opioid overdose.
Up until about four months ago the only way to get your hands on Naloxone was to go to a training session, then see a doctor for a prescription, and finally head to a pharmacy to have it filled.
"So now if you get your training, you can be issued a prescription that's already pre-signed in my name," Wen said.
To make it even easier, starting Wednesday, any city resident can get trained online. The City Health Department launched www.DontDie.org. The goal is to get the lifesaving drug into more hands.
All you have to do is register, watch a quick video, and then answer a few questions.
"Will then be able to present this to any pharmacy in the city and be issued Naloxone at that time,” Wen said.
Officials hope this will get more people to learn how to administer Naloxone, and save families the heartbreak of a fatal overdose.
Officials pushed for the online training module after a sharp spike in heroin overdoses where the drug was laced with Fentanyl. Fentanyl is an opioid pain killer that is at least 50 times stronger than Morphine. In October alone there were 14 deaths related to Fentanyl, a 133% increase from the year before.
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