(Missourinet) – Governor Jay Nixon has signed into law a bill that will let pharmacists sell a drug that counteracts overdoses to opioids, including heroin.

The bill’s sponsor, Representative Steve Lynch (R-Waynesville), said if family members or other loved ones of an opioid or heroin abuser have naloxone, often marketed as Narcan, there is a good chance they could save that abuser’s life in the case of an overdose.

“Minutes count when it comes to drug overdoses. You only have four to seven minutes to be able to administer it. Most of the drug overdoses happen in the home. Most of the time there’s someone around, so if you can get the antidote in the hands of those that are there, we know it’s going to save a lot of lives,” said Lynch.

Lynch hopes friends and family members of abusers will take advantage of the new law, because he doubts that abusers, themselves, will have naloxone on hand.

“Unfortunately those that are prone to the disease of addiction, in my opinion, won’t be the ones that are getting it. They’re going to continue to spend the money on the drugs that they’re addicted to,” said Lynch. “It will be the parents – the moms, the dads – it could be a husband, a wife, it could be sisters or brothers, because people seem to know what’s going on in their families. It could be friends.”

Two weeks ago Senator Claire McCaskill’s (D-Missouri) office requested pricing information from five companies that make naloxone. She said recent price spikes have limited accessibility to it. Her office expects to hear back from those companies in the next few days.

Lynch says if price spikes are reducing naloxone’s availability, that’s troubling.

“It would be really disappointing [for pharmacists in] Missouri to finally be able to sell it to parents, which actually creates a larger market for the drug – it would more profit coming in … but for drug companies to raise it just because it’s becoming more popular, more accessible for people to use to save lives, I’m very concerned about that,” said Lynch.

Two years ago the legislature passed, and Governor Nixon signed, a bill allowing first responders to administer naloxone to overdose patients.
Lynch hopes more steps can be taken to help fight opioid and heroin abuse. He supports the creation in Missouri of a prescription drug monitoring program to track people filling multiple prescriptions of drugs to abuse or sell them.

Governor Nixon, in his statement about signing HB 1568, expressed disappointment the Missouri legislature again this year did not pass a monitoring program.

Lynch also plans to keep proposing what he calls a 911 Good Samaritan bill, that would extend immunity for possession of a small amount of drugs, or drug use, to those who call for emergency medical care for someone suffering from an overdose.

St. Louis has just passed such a bill. Mayor Francis Slay is expected to sign it later this week.

Lynch dedicated the passage of HB 1568 to a childhood friend whose son died from heroin, and to parents who worked with him and encouraged him to work to see that legislation become law.

(Missourinet) – The number of Missouri kids living in poverty has increased since 2008 according to an annual assessment of child well-being. Missouri is ranked 28th nationally in the latest Kids Count Data Book compiled by Annie E. Casey Foundation, a child welfare organization.

Senior Research Associate Florencia Gutierrez believes Missouri should increase its resources for poor families.

“Across the board in children living in high poverty areas and children whose parents lack secure employment, we found an 11% increase,” said Gutierrez. “Since the 2008 recession, the unemployment rate has consistently declined. We assumed with that decline we would see a decline in the child poverty rate. That hasn’t been the case.”

Some of the positive trends included the teen birth rate declining by 39%, fewer teens are abusing alcohol and drugs and the number of teens not graduating from high school on time is at a record low in Missouri.

“We know that at a national level, there has been large investments in education and prevention campaigns when it comes to teen pregnancy and abuse of alcohol and drugs among teens. We’ve also seen a large push from the federal government around education to set regulations and to hold states accountable for the drop out crisis that we saw in the early 2000s,” said Gutierrez.

Missouri’s overall ranking has held fairly steady since 2012.

Surrounding states’ rankings include:

Iowa
Nebraska
Kansas
Illinois
Tennessee
Oklahoma
Arkansas

“The states in the south, in general, rank poorly when it comes to child well-being. It’s not surprising that Missouri is sort of in the middle between those that are not investing in kids and those that are further North that are,” said Gutierrez. “Southern states have had a history of disinvestment when it comes to social programs and using government in order to help children and families get by.”

The data used to compile the report comes from federal statistical agencies like the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Education and National Survey of Children’s Health.

Governor Jay Nixon (D) will sign tomorrow legislation that will make the advertising of sex with victims of trafficking a felony.

The bill will add such advertising to the state’s definition of trafficking, which is a felony punishable by 5 to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or 10-years in prison or life, depending on the age of the victim.

The bill’s sponsor, Elijah Haahr (R-Springfield), said other aspects of trafficking were being punished but those advertising it were getting away.

“What essentially we realized is there’s a loophole in the law, and this is a way to close that loophole,” said Haahr.

Haahr said trafficking is a major issue in Missouri.

“The FBI estimates St. Louis is one of the top 20 trafficking destinations in the country. With I-49, I-70, and I-44 cutting across the state, it’s one that I think impacts Missouri to a much more significant level than most people understand,” said Haahr.

Haahr chairs a committee that he told Missourinet will meet later this year, and will prepare a report recommending more legislation and other initiatives to fight trafficking in Missouri.

The legislation also includes language that tightens controls on who can access videos and photos of interviews with victims of child sex crimes. Backers said there were cases in which such videos were released to a college class, wound up on YouTube, or even were given to the person accused of abusing the child in the video.

Another provision allows sex trafficking victims to use a state program to keep their addresses confidential, to help them hide from their abductors.

The new law becomes effective August 28.