Tennessee increases availability of Naloxone to fight Opioid Overdose
September 13, 2016
Nashville, TN – Tennessee has a powerful new tool to fight opioid overdose with the passage of Public Chapter 596. This new law allows authorized pharmacists to dispense naloxone to a person at risk of opioid overdose or to a family member, friend or other person to assist someone at risk of an opiate-related overdose.
Public Chapter 596 sets up a statewide pharmacy practice agreement for what is called “opioid antagonist therapy.”
Four Tennessee Agency Leaders call for increased awareness about Fentanyl
August 30, 2016
Nashville, TN – Following a public health alert update last week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on increased risk of overdose and fatalities associated with Fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills and compounds, commissioners and directors from four Tennessee departments are urging the public to have increased awareness about the substance.
Tennessee Department of Health says Naloxone offers Hope to Save Lives
September 1, 2015
Drug Overdoses Claim More Tennesseans in 2014
Nashville, TN – Even with the availability of naloxone, the opioid overdose antidote, and fewer prescription drugs being diverted, the number of Tennesseans who die each year due to drug overdoses increased again in 2014.
The total of overdose deaths rose by nearly 100, from 1,166 in 2013 to a record-setting 1,263 in 2014. If those numbers are hard to comprehend, consider this: more people died from drug overdoses in Tennessee last year than were killed in motor vehicle accidents.








