White House pushes anti-overdose drug

{mosads}The drug works by dislodging opioids from receptors in the brain, which can restore breathing during an overdose.

The White House drug office, along with the Department of Health and Human Services, is looking to find out how to get more cops and emergency technicians to carry and use naloxone.

The Obama administration is holding up the injection as part of a broader strategy to combat overdoses, which killed 100 Americans every day in 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The administration is also supporting expanded community-based efforts to combat drug use and access to treatment.

In addition, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is releasing a toolkit to help patients, first responders and overdose survivors combat overdoses. 

The effort is part of the administration’s strategy to fight drugs through a middle ground between legalization and aggressive incarceration.

It’s a “science-based drug policy that addresses the national drug challenge as a public health issue, not just a criminal justice issue,” Gil Kerlikowske, the director of the White House’s drug control office, told reporters on Wednesday.

He added, “We’re not going to arrest our way out of our drug problem.”