Heroin belongs to a class of drugs called opioids. All drugs in this class are chemically related, including street drugs and those prescribed by physicians. They affect chemical receptors in your nervous system to produce pleasurable sensations and reduce pain.¹

Legal prescriptions include oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, morphine, fentanyl and many others.² According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, of the 21.5 million Americans with a substance abuse disorder in 2014, 1.9 million were addicted to prescription pain relievers and 585,000 were addicted to heroin.³

America's addiction to pain medication begins in the physician's office. Drug companies have shrewdly misled doctors and patients, purposely downplaying the abuse potential of these drugs.⁴ As a result of this, drug overdoses are now the leading cause of accidental death, with opioid addiction driving the epidemic.⁵

In 1971 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of naloxone to reverse heroin drug overdoses.⁶ Today it is carried by first responders and used in hospitals and clinics. However, where the drug was once very affordable, prices have skyrocketed right along with the prevalence of opioid addiction.

Profits Over People

Originally, naloxone was designed for injection only. With the rapid rise of opioid overdoses and use of the medication in the field, drug companies looked for another method of administration.

In 2012, The National Institute on Drug Abuse and Opiant Pharmaceuticals joined together to develop an intranasal administration device, which was approved by the FDA in 2015.⁷

As recently as the early 2000s, the cost of naloxone hovered around $1 per dose. Today the drug costs close to $40 per dose and the price keeps rising.8 Apparently, Big Pharma is taking full advantage of the race to get the medication in the hands of all first responders and even into most households.