The province is making the kits that temporarily reverse the overdose effects of fentanyl and other opioids available free of charge and without prescriptions through pharmacies.

Brandy Payne, Associate Minister of Health says it's one part of an over-all strategy.

"Our hope in removing the prescription requirement will encourage more people to access these potentially life saving kits,and of course pharmacists are very well equipped to coach Albertans to use the kits safely," she says.

Naloxone kits will be available in approximately 700 of the 1,100 pharmacies in Alberta.

The province is also providing AHS with an additional $3-million to expand counselling services and access to treatment in several communities. By the end of the first year of the three-year project it's expected an additional 240 people will be receiving opioid replacement treatment, an increase of 20 per cent.

It'll take about a year to get those spaces open and it's not known where they'll be established according to the Executive Director of Mental Health Services with AHS Barry Andres.

"It's going to be a bit of a staged approach, we're still in the planning stage right now, working with our partners in terms of identifying all of the delivery mechanisms that go with that and that will be sequenced throughout this year," he says.

The government is also working with the federal government to support the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police resolution to ban pill presses and fentanyl precursors across the country.

Questions, comments, or story ideas? Email us at news@okotoksonline.com