Belford, Hazlet, Atlantic Highlands Pharmacies Give Naloxone For Free

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Three pharmacies in the Middletown area announced this week they will now start giving out Naloxone for free to anyone who asks for it.

The three pharmacies are Bayshore Pharmacy Cards & Gifts, located at the Super Foodtown plaza in Atlantic Highlands, Hazlet Pharmacy on Rt. 35 in Hazlet and Middletown Family Pharmacy on Main Street Belford, all part of the Good Neighbor Pharmacy network.

All three will dispense the opioid antidote anonymously to anyone who asks for it at the counter, at no cost. Just this week, an FDA advisory committee recommended that naloxone nasal spray be sold and distributed without a prescription.

"We want to help our friends, neighbors and family. Eighty percent of overdose deaths occur inside a home," said pharmacist Richard Stryker, who you can find daily behind the counter at Bayshore Pharmacy. "In almost half of those incidents, someone else was present. Having Naloxone available allows bystanders to help prevent a fatal overdose."

Naloxone is the rescue nasal spray for when one is suffering an opioid overdose. It used often by police officers and EMTs to save the life of someone suffering an opiate overdose from heroin, fentanyl or even prescription painkillers. While deaths have gone down in this area in the past few years, the Bayshore region has been hard hit by heroin and fentanyl use in the past 10 years.