In 2021, Florida’s emergency responders treated nearly 105,000 drug overdoses of which over 40,000 were suspected to involve opioids. Yet over 6,000 people in Florida died from an opioid drug overdose. More lives can be saved through the expanded use of naloxone.

If you are one of the heroes who work every day to save lives, you are aware of the opioid epidemic plaguing every corner of our state and nation. The Attorney General recognizes that many emergency response agencies need assistance obtaining the life-saving medication, naloxone and that is where Helping Heroes can assist.

Helping Heroes is an Attorney General program that provides free naloxone to emergency response agencies at participating Walmart Inc. (Walmart) pharmacy locations for participating first responders and law enforcement officers. The available naloxone was procured as part of the Attorney General’s historic opioid settlements with Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. (Teva) and Walmart. Over the next ten years, Teva and Walmart will partner with Florida Health and the Attorney General to manufacture, distribute, and dispense $84 million worth of lifesaving naloxone to first responders and law enforcement officers throughout Florida. If your agency is interested in obtaining naloxone, please read the below on how to qualify your agency so that your officers, paramedics, firefighters and EMTs can have Naloxone dispensed to them for free. Helping Heroes is intended to supplement, not supplant the HEROS Program that Florida Department of Health operates.

How Does Helping Heroes Work?

Any Florida agency that employs licensed emergency responders may apply to Helping Heroes online. Licensed emergency responders include law enforcement officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians or paramedics, correctional officers and correctional probation officers as defined in Florida Statutes.

What are the requirements for participating agencies?

First, participating agencies must complete the application form, which can be found here. After the participating agency completes the application form, the Office of Attorney General will send the participating agency, to the contact provided, a certification form.

The participating agency will have to certify that it has provided training to its licensed emergency responders regarding the use of intranasal spray Naloxone and recognizing the signs of opioid overdoses. The Attorney General has put together a training video available here, that satisfies that requirement and other organizations like the Florida Sheriffs Association have training that satisfies the requirement.

In addition, the certification form, like with the Department of Health’s HEROS program, the participating agency must agree to report Naloxone administrations to an approved system. Approved reporting systems as identified in S.S. 401.253(1), F.S. are:

the Emergency Medical Services Tracking and Reporting System (EMSTARS) Version 3 or higher

--OR--

the Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program (also known as OD Maps, which is free of charge to join) Certifications must be returned to helpingheroes@myfloridalegal.com. Once the participating agency’s application and certification are processed. The participating agency will be added to the list of approved agencies, which will be communicated to Walmart. By agreement, the participating agency list will be updated once a quarter (March, June, September, and December) as are the amounts of Naloxone ordered. Once added to the approved list, your licensed emergency responders will be able to go into participating Walmart stores and obtain up to five Naloxone two packs. If an emergency responder has any difficulty obtaining Naloxone, please e-mail helpingheroes@myfloridalegal.com. Again, Helping Heroes is not intended to fully supplant the HEROS program. It is intended to further augment the amount of Naloxone available to first responders.

What Walmart stores are participating in Helping Heroes?

While the list may change from time to time and may be periodically updated, a list of the participating Walmart stores dispensing Naloxone as part of this project is located here.

What to do if you have questions about the application, training, certification, or obtaining Naloxone?

If you have questions about Helping Heroes, you can contact the Attorney General at 1-866-966-7226, or e-mail to helpingheroes@myfloridalegal.com.

What to do with expired Naloxone?

The Attorney General is not accepting expired Naloxone secured either through the HEROS program or Helping Heroes. Expired Naloxone should be disposed of through an appropriate drug disposal service. A list of free drug disposal services is listed here.

Application Form