Westbrook, Maine - Maine Democratic Party Chairman Phil Bartlett issued the following statement today calling on Joe Bruno, the Chair of the Maine Board of Pharmacy, to reverse his decision that raised the age of people who can purchase naloxone from 18 to 21.
Chairman Bartlett’s statement comes in advance of a Pharmacy Board hearing scheduled for this Thursday where the Board is expected to consider public comments on Bruno’s change. It also comes after after a legislative committee today overwhelmingly endorsed a bipartisan bill authored by Democratic Speaker Sara Gideon that would lower the age. Speaker Gideon introduced the bill in response to Bruno’s change.
“Joe Bruno should consider the committee’s overwhelming endorsement of Speaker Gideon’s bill as direct disapproval of his bad backroom deal to protect Paul LePage.
“In fact, with the committee’s approval, Bruno now has a choice: continue to defend LePage’s senseless opposition to expanding access to this medication, or, reverse his prior decision and return the age of purchase to eighteen, as the legislature intended all along.
“Doing the latter may frustrate LePage, but it will save valuable time that would unquestionably save peoples’ lives. Bruno already chose politics over people once - we urge him not to do so again on Thursday.”
Speaker Gideon’s bipartisan bill comes in the wake of an unexpected and unnecessary move by the Chair of the Maine Board of Pharmacy, Joe Bruno, who, at the last minute, raised the age of people able to purchase naloxone from 18 to 21. The change, which came after Governor LePage stalled the rules for five months, was a pragmatic move, Bruno alleged, to garner Governor LePage’s approval. However, Governor LePage - whose ideological opposition to naloxone is shared by nearly no one - had previously said that he didn’t need to approve the rules for the law to move forward. Bruno is a big financial backer of both Paul LePage and Republican gubernatorial candidate Shawn Moody, the only Republican candidate who has not broken with LePage to call for the rules to move forward.
Even President Donald Trump supports increasing access to naloxone, traveling to New Hampshire recently to announce the creation of a program aimed at providing free doses of the life-saving, anti-overdose medication naloxone to high schools, colleges, and universities – making him the latest Republican to disagree with Governor Paul LePage’s opposition to expanding access to the drug.
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