As of Tuesday, Governor Bill Walker put his pen to paper on a new bill. Alaska’s Chief Medical Officer now has greater authority to distribute the life-saving drug naloxone statewide. The move coincides with Walker issuing an extension of the disaster declaration for the opioid epidemic in Alaska.
The measure, Senate Bill 91, was passed quickly in just 11 days during the current legislative session. It allows the State of Alaska to use federal funds for distributing naloxone.
But it’s completely separate from SB91, the comprehensive crime bill which passed last year.
Senate Bill 91 is the first bill Governor Walker has signed into law in 2017. In a press release, he stated, “We are saving lives with this law.”
And the focus of saving lives from opioid addiction isn’t just a focus in the Legislature. Two mushers from this year’s Iditarod sled dog race brought attention to the epidemic by carrying opioid overdose rescue kits in their sleds along the trail.
“Hi, my name is Melissa Stewart, and I am an Iditarod finisher, and I carried that kit up the trail this year in my sled.”
Stewart brought the opioid overdose kit from Fairbanks to Nome because her father, Mike Owens, a Nome flight paramedic, asked her to.
“They were trying to get the word out, and it was kind of a last-minute thing. So, he brought two up from Juneau and gave one to me and one to Katherine Keith to carry,” said Stewart.
Katherine Keith talked about that kit before the official Iditarod restart in Fairbanks.
“One thing that’s great that we’re carrying on the trail this year is a NARCAN nasal spray kit. Only two teams throughout the Iditarod are going to be carrying it through the villages. It’s an opioid overdose rescue kit that the State of Alaska is offering for free to communities,” Keith explained.
Even though this is the first time Stewart has carried an opioid kit in her sled along the trail, she says mushers bring items of significance with them all the time.
“I carry beads of courage every year. I think everybody carries in their sled what they want to carry for different reasons,” Stewart said. “I know folks that will carry ashes, and I mean, it’s all dependent on each individual musher as to what they carry and why.”
According to Stewart, the opioid kit she transported along the trail will be delivered from Nome to Juneau and be used to help an individual recover from opioid addiction.
