The labels of prescription opioid painkillers should advise doctors to consider simultaneously prescribing the opioid overdose antidote naloxone, two U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panels recommend.

The 12-to-11 vote during a joint meeting of the committees was described by several members as a message to the federal government to make naloxone more widely available, easier to obtain, and cheaper, the Washington Post reported. Although not required to do so, the FDA often follows the recommendations of its advisory committees.

Earlier this year, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, M.D., M.P.H., issued an advisory urging opioid users, their families, and their friends to keep naloxone nearby, the Post reported.

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It remains the opinion of NationalAddictionNews.com, that the ONLY reason for opioids are 1) if a patient in the last days/weeks/months of actively dying and having such severe pain as to cause uncontrolled screaming, and 2) intolerable and intractable pain so as to cause severe discomfort during the active phase of death and dying.  Other than these two circumstances, opioids are a prescription for addiction, great suffering and death.