Los Angeles County voted to save lives this week when the Board of Supervisors approved the creation of a pilot project to publicly distribute naloxone, a drug that reverses the effects of opiate overdose.

The county will fund community-based agencies that currently provide syringe exchange or drug treatment services so they can also distribute naloxone. Agencies participating in the program will train clients on naloxone administration, overdose prevention, and rescue breathing.

The program is an important step in addressing a long-standing local need--drug overdose has been one of the leading causes of premature death in Los Angeles County for over ten years.

Shoshanna Scholar of Clean Needles Now, a syringe exchange program in Los Angeles, said, "This pilot program has the potential to change the facts on the ground--to save lives now."

Naloxone has proven effective at reducing overdose deaths in San Francisco, New York, New Mexico, and other places where distribution programs have gone into effect.

Earlier this year, Clean Needles Now and Drug Policy Alliance sponsored a local overdose prevention summit, which led to the formation of the Los Angeles Overdose Prevention Task Force. The task force now has 58 members from 48 agencies, and many task force members testified at this week's Board of Supervisors meeting.

Alberto Mendoza, director of DPA's southern California office, said, "Our collaboration with the Overdose Prevention Task force scored a huge victory in the effort to help prevent overdose deaths. It's wonderful to see policy, legal and grassroots work producing lifesaving policy changes."