Looking around online real quick and I found CVS sells generic narcan for $130 and generic epipen for about $100 ..but those prices are without insurance, which most people have. So the out of pocket is probably even less depending on coverage. But yes, in the scenario you describe, the person gets free narcan and the public fits the bill, which is about $65 per junkie (2 shots per pack).
So is your position that they should have to pay for the narcan dose? Or that epipens should also be free?
If they can afford their drug fix, they should pay for their own revival drugs. Like a medical bill. You got yourself into that situation, you should't get out without consequence.
How would you enforce that? Ive seen video where an EMT gives the guy narcan and he fucking jumped up and basically just took off. They were trying to get him to stop, to get him to a hospital or whatever and the guy was like "no thanks!" and just rushed off around a corner.
How would that guy get billed? Let's assume that he actually has a physical address and gets regular mail (unlikely). And let's assume that somehow the EMT's figured out where to send a bill...whats a good deterrent to keep a drug addict from just completely ignoring that bill?
I like you.
That's a valid point.A bill probably wouldn't work.The only thing I can come up with is identifying the addict at that moment if possible (again, probably not viable, but maybe detaining him until ID'd?) and if he is encountered again, has a note on his file of the times he was revived, and then maybe not administering narcan after one or two times? IDEALLY an officer/EMT would see 'Hey, I've revived this guy before' or 'Hey, I see that we've given this guy narcan like 4 times, he's past his limit'.
But then we get into all sorts of ethical issues. So I can't really come up with a great solution myself.
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