In an unusual step indicating the Trump White House’s high priority on fighting the opiod epidemic, Surgeon General Jerome Adams has issued a rare official advisory recommending many more Americans carry the overdose-reversing drug, naloxone.

The drug comes as an injection or nasal spray. It can quite quickly restore normal breathing in a person suspected of overdosing on opioids, including heroin and prescription pain medications. First responders already carry naloxone for emergencies.

Speaking in Atlanta Thursday, Dr. Adams observed that people in 46 states who themselves are or know someone at risk of an opioid overdose can be trained in proper naloxone use and can get it without a prescription from pharmacies or select community programs.

“No mother should have to bury their child,” Adams said, “and especially not when there’s a life-saving medication that virtually anyone can access. It is for this reason that I am issuing the first Surgeon General’s Advisory in 13 years.” The last one dealt with drinking alcohol during pregnancy.

According to new numbers just released by the Centers for Disease Control, drug overdoses caused 632,331 deaths between 1999 and 2016/ Some 351,600 were opioid overdoses.

In 2016, 63,632 people died from drug overdoses; opioids were involved in about two-thirds of them. Deaths from synthetic opioids like fentanyl and carfentanil accounted for 30.5% of all drug overdose deaths, a 100% increase in one year.

Dr. Adams sees his recommendation much like previous ones encouraging more people to learn CPR for possible emergency use.

But it is not without critics. They suggest the presence of a ready lifebelt in naloxone may, in fact, encourage additional abuse since to a drug-addled mind, it could assuage the fear of an overdose death.