In 2015, MS House Bill 692 Emergency Response and Overdose Prevention Act was signed into law.
This Act accomplished three main objectives:
- Authorization for physicians to prescribe, pharmacists to dispense, and emergency medical technicians to administer to the life-saving medication naloxone
- Provision of immunity from civil or criminal liability or professional licensing sanctions for any persons acting in good faith and reasonable care to administer naloxone to any person believed to be experiencing an opioid-related overdose
- Provision of immunity from arrest or prosecution for certain drug violations by a person seeking treatment or assisting a person in need of treatment for a drug overdose if the evidence of the violation results from the medical treatment of the drug overdose, known as the Mississippi Medical Emergency Good Samaritan Act
In 2017, MS House Bill 996 Naloxone Standing Order Act was signed in to law.
This Act further enhanced HB692 with two main objectives including:
- Authorization for health care practitioners to issue a standing order that allows pharmacies to dispense naloxone to any person without an individual prescription
- Addition of specific immunity from civil or criminal liability for any persons acting in good faith and reasonable care to administer naloxone purchased by individual prescription or standing order to any person believed to be experiencing an opioid-related overdose
**Additional information shall follow pending action from the Medical and Dental Licensing Boards
