Correction:The print and earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the kits are free. The store can prescribe them and bill insurance. Without insurance, the cost is $100.

In hopes of preventing needless deaths, La Conner Drug Store has begun dispensing kits with a medication that will reverse the effects of opiate overdoses.

Each kit contains two doses of the drug Naloxone, which acts as an antidote to opium without having any harmful effects of its own.

Opiate-based drugs are the most common sources of overdoses in this part of the country, said La Conner Pharmacy Manager Leslie...