The United States Surgeon General, Dr. Jerome M. Adams, issued a national advisory Thursday urging more Americans to keep on hand and learn how to use the drug, naloxone, which can save the lives of people overdosing on opioids. Naloxone has already revived thousands of overdose victims as the opioid epidemic has intensified, but rescue workers have usually been the ones to administer it.

It was the first advisory issued by a surgeon general since 2005, and it underscored the urgency of addressing an opioid epidemic that has killed more than 250,000 people over the past decade, including more than 42,000 people in 2016.

Dr. Adams said making naloxone more available in communities across the country is critical to reducing overdose deaths among people prescribed high doses of opioids for pain, as well as those who abuse painkillers or illicit opioids like fentanyl and heroin.

Dr. Leana Wen, the health commissioner in Baltimore, said her city has to ration naloxone because it can’t afford to keep a stockpile on hand. She called on the Trump administration to negotiate directly with the manufacturers of naloxone to make it available at a steeply discounted rate.

“Every week, we count the doses we have left and make hard decisions about who will receive the medication and who will have to go without,” she said in a statement. “The federal government needs to follow their policy guidance with specific actions to actually ensure access.”

She added, “We should not be priced out of the ability to save lives.”

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