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LePage Vetoes Bill to Expand Availability of Overdose Drug

PORTLAND, Maine - Gov. Paul LePage has vetoed a bill designed to make the overdose reversal drug naloxone available without a prescription.

The legislation is designed to allow family members or friends to counteract an opiate overdose more quickly than emergency responders, in what is seen as a life or death situation.

In his veto message the governor says that naloxone, also known as Narcan, does not truly save lives, it merely extends them until the next overdose.

Democratic state Sen. Cathy Breen, the bill's lead Senate co-sponsor, says that's just not correct.

"In fact, it's most likely for people to overdose when they're in recovery because they use a lot of opioids when they're actively using and their body builds up a tolerance to it," Breen says, "and when they are in recovery, their body loses that tolerance."

And, Breen says, if they relapse and use their previous amount, an overdose becomes much more likely.

Breen says she hopes the Legislature will override the veto.

Ed is a Maine native who spent his early childhood in Livermore Falls before moving to Farmington. He graduated from Mount Blue High School in 1970 before going to the University of Maine at Orono where he received his BA in speech in 1974 with a broadcast concentration. It was during that time that he first became involved with public broadcasting. He served as an intern for what was then called MPBN TV and also did volunteer work for MPBN Radio.
Nora is originally from the Boston area but has lived in Chicago, Michigan, New York City and at the northern tip of New York state. Nora began working in public radio at Michigan Radio in Ann Arbor and has been an on-air host, a reporter, a digital editor, a producer, and, when they let her, played records.