Missouri is on the brink of changing how it funds and provides naloxone to first responders.
The program is credited for reducing overdoses, but it faces a potential budget cut of $8 million, more than 50% of the state's overall funding. On this episode of "St. Louis on the Air," University of Missouri-St. Louis professor Rachel Winograd shares her insights on the origins, successes and uncertain future of naloxone in Missouri.
Winograd is the director of addiction science at the Missouri Institute for Mental Health. Her team is responsible for distributing naloxone for the entire state.
"We got our first funding for naloxone in 2017, and that year we gave out about 1,100 naloxone kits," she said. "Last year, we distributed over 650,000 naloxone kits across the state. That has been a huge amount of growth."
Lawmakers continue to debate the final budget before the legislative session ends next month. Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee discussed restoring $5 million for naloxone funding, the Missouri Independent reported.
However, that proposal comes with a requirement that the state purchase Narcan, the more expensive, brand name version of naloxone. Winograd called the committee's proposal "scandalous."
"[Narcan] is more than a $7 difference per box," she said. "You multiply that by hundreds of thousands of boxes, [and] we are talking about losing out on almost 100,000 doses of naloxone."
To hear the full conversation about the status of naloxone in Missouri with Rachel Winograd, listen to "St. Louis on the Air" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube, or click the play button below.
"St. Louis on the Air" brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Layla Halilbasic is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
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