Everyone in the recovery community is most likely aware of the life saving drug, Naloxone (also known as Narcan), which reverses drug overdoses from opioids. It was created by Jack Fishman in the 1960s and was originally developed to help relieve constipation in those who chronically used opioids, but over the years evolved into something that can save lives.

Naloxone has been steadily growing in popularity throughout the last two years. Just during this time, 17 states passed laws to make the drug more readily available. In some states there are now laws that can allow doctors to prescribe Naloxone to family members of an addict. In others, you don’t even need a prescription; any pharmacist may give you the drug. Additionally, medical response teams now carry the drug and are saving thousands of lives. These are all very good strides at drastically reducing the amount of overdose deaths.

Although the drug itself is a miracle to many people, it is important for the public to not rely on it. We should not get in the mindset that it will save an addict every time. It will not fix the problem of addiction. It can save an addict from an overdose, but cannot fix why or how he or she overdosed. We should focus on healing addicts and helping them into recovery instead of focusing on saving them only when they hit rock bottom.

Naloxone is great, but so is recovery.