A former associate health minister's panning government and Health Ministry inaction for not making a lifesaving drug antidote more available.

About as many people die accidentally each year from opioid drugs as from the recent synthetic cannabis crisis.

Over the last decade, there have been 350 deaths.

There's a safe, easy to use antidote here that could save people's lives if they're overdosing: Naloxone, or Narcan.

However, it's not able to be bought over the counter, and can be hard for users to access.

The Ministry of Health won't reclassify it to make it more available because of legal barriers.

Peter Dunne says they've had years to work it out.

"What might have been reasonable excuses at the beginning certainly aren't excuses now and should be resolved and Naloxone should be more freely available."

Earlier this year, Police Minister Stuart Nash has warned that we must prepare for fentanyl, the potent opioid that killed 20-thousand Americans in one year, arriving here in higher quantities.

Dunne, who oversaw drug policy for the previous Government, says making naloxone available is exactly one of those preparations.

"This is something we could be doing now. I think these obstacles could have been overcome and should have been overcome. It's in the same spirit of what we did with the needle exchange all those years ago."

LISTEN TO PETER DUNNE TALK WITH MIKE HOSKING ABOVE