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Dennis Cecchini last year found his son — a prescription pain-killer addict — dying on the shower floor from an overdose.

"My wife and I found him in enough time, we think, to have saved his life. But we didn't know how," the Taylorsville resident told legislators on Thursday. Giving his son a dose of the drug naloxone likely would have reversed the overdose.

"My wife is a trained EMT, and she didn't even know about naloxone," he said. So Cecchini asked lawmakers to pass a package of bills designed to spread that word, and ensure that drug was much easier to obtain.

"We had to watch our son die on the bathroom floor. No parent should have to do that ever," he said, adding the bills "are absolutely essential."

That came as state lawmakers advanced a package of five bills Thursday to declare overdoses of prescription pain killers as a "health emergency," and offer a variety of steps designed to save the lives of addicts.

The House Health and Human Services Committee unanimously approved all of the bills: HCR4, HB240, HB192, HB238 and HB239 by a group of bipartisan sponsors. They now go to the full House for consideration.

"Over 400 people a year are dying right here in Utah every year" from overdoses, "more than traffic fatalities" or gun-related deaths, said Rep. Carol Moss, D-Holladay. Utah ranks fourth overall in such deaths, and No. 1 for them among military veterans.

"These are not statistics that we want to boast about," she said. Her HCR4 would declare the situation a health emergency and direct state agencies to do what they can to address it.

Several bills would make it easier to obtain or distribute naloxone to reverse the effects of overdoses of opioids — such as oxycodone, methadone and hydrocodone.

Jennifer Plumb, an emergency room doctor at Primary Children's Hospital, said she has personally used it to save many people, even on the street — and saw it used by parents for children, by friends and "by every kind of face you can imagine."

One bill would allow standing prescriptions — such as from the state health department — to permit pharmacists statewide to offer naloxone to anyone who has prescriptions for opioids.

Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, sponsor of HB240, said it could be stored for use by the person using the opioids in case of an overdose, or perhaps for a child who stumbles into and uses the drugs. He said naloxone is not harmful to people who are not overdosing.

Other bills would make naloxone available to police and groups that serve at-risk people, and make it easier for family members of addicts to obtain them.

Other bills would create pilot programs to reach out to at-risk people, and education programs to spread the word about naloxone and what to do for overdoses. One makes it easier for doctors and pharmacists to access a state database on what drugs people are using, to avoid over-prescribing drugs.

Other bills also provide immunity from civil prosecution to people who administer naloxone in good faith.