The recently-approved Naloxone drug, which reverses heroin overdoses, is getting more expensive as the demand for the drug continues to increase.
The drug's availability in the real world was feared at first in the 1990s, as many believed it would promote heroin use, reported The Atlantic.
Alexander Walley, who was a med student at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, at the time pushed the drug later dubbed the heroin overdose "miracle drug" to get in the hands of police officers, as well as the friends and families of heroin users.
"It seemed like a no-brainer to get these kits in to the people most likely to be on the scene, which was other users," Wally said to The Atlantic.
Although the drug was heavily feared at first, the use of the drug was expanded throughout Massachusetts in 2007 and later approved by the Food and Drug Administration in April 2014.
"Before 2006 we didn't have this medication," Sarah Mackin, AHOPE's director, told The Atlantic. "We didn't have anything." The only defense was a community of addicts who used together and looked out for each other. "They wanted to do something, anything, to save someone's life. If it meant they were going to put ice on someone's balls or put them in a cold shower, then that's what they were going to do."
The stigma against the overdose drug is almost completely reversed today, as police officers, community officers and family members of users are looking to get their hands on the "miracle drug."
Prices for the drug doubled recently as it grew in greater demand, reported TIME. In Georgia the price of the drug increased from $22 to $40.
Drug overdoses are an rapidly increasing epidemic in the U.S. More than a 117 percent increase was seen in drug overdose cases from 1999 to 2012 alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Obama Administration has also taken a keen interest in the drug, reported TIME. The administration is looking to make it a priority for more first responders to have access to the drug.
Attorney Eric Holder called the need for more accessible Naloxone "an urgent public health crisis," reported TIME.
