Governor Terry Branstad.
Governor Terry Branstad has signed a bill into law that lets first responders and others administer a drug that counteracts an opioid overdose.
“This legislation is a positive step forward in decreasing the tragedies that an opiod overdose can have on Iowans and their loved ones,” Branstad says.
Kim Brown is a registered nurse from Davenport. Her son died of a heroin overdose in 2011. He wasn’t alone at the time and she thinks if a friend or family member had been able to give him Naloxone, he might be alive today.
“You cannot rehab a dead kid,” she says. “And once they’re dead, there’s no coming back.”
Iowa now joins 45 other states which let anyone administer Naloxone to revive someone who’s overdosed and stopped breathing.
Branstad has signed more than 30 bills into law during the past 24 hours. That includes legislation that offers a new state tax credit to businesses that come up with new products from what’s left over after ethanol and biodiesel are made.
(Reporting by Iowa Public Radio’s Sarah Boden. Additional reporting by Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson)