By LEAH WILLINGHAM
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — For many years, Jeff Card's family business was known for making the once-ubiquitous tin cans during which people could buy newspapers on the road.
If you reach into one in every of its containers today, you may find something completely different and free: naloxone, the drug used to treat an opioid overdose.
Since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved over-the-counter sales of the drug over a yr ago, increasingly more naloxone distribution containers have been popping up across the country. Naloxone, a nasal spray commonly generally known as Narcan, is used as an emergency treatment to treat drug overdoses.
Such boxes – that are positioned in neighborhoods, outside hospitals, health departments and supermarkets – are a way for advocates for individuals with substance use disorders to make Narcan, which costs about $50 over-the-counter, available to those that need it most. Similar to small free libraries that hand out books to anyone who wants one, the metal boxes, once used as newspaper bins, are unlocked and don’t charge a fee. People can take as much as they feel they need.
Proponents say the containers help normalize using the drug – and are evidence that the stigma surrounding its use is steadily decreasing.
On the occasion of “Save a Life Day” on Thursday, 60 Narcan containers were distributed in 35 states – one naloxone Distribution and knowledge event was launched in 2020 by a West Virginia nonprofit. The containers were purchased from Card's Texas-based Mechanism Exchange & Repair, which still serves newspaper customers but has expanded its production to other products in light of the decline of the newspaper industry.
“It's both fortunate and unfortunate,” said Card, who began manufacturing the Narcan containers greater than two years ago. “Fortunate for us that we have something we can build, but unfortunate that this is what we have to build, given how bad the drug problem is in America.”
Opioid deaths were at record levels even before the coronavirus pandemic, but skyrocketed when it struck in early 2020. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated there have been about 85,000 opioid-related deaths within the 12 months ending April 2023. But the number has since declined. The CDC's estimate for the 12 months ending April 2024 was 75,000 – still higher than at any point before the pandemic.
The Reasons for the decline should not fully understood. But it coincides with Narcan, a drug that hard to get in some communities, available without prescriptionand with the intensification of Use of funds from court settlements between governments and drug manufacturers, wholesalers and pharmacies.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Narcan to treat overdoses back in 1971, but its use was limited to paramedics and hospitals for many years. Narcan nasal spray was first approved by the FDA as a prescription drug in 2015, was approved for over-the-counter sale in March, and was available in major pharmacies last September.
“That removed the barriers. And that's when we realized, 'OK, now we need to improve access. How can we get naloxone into communities?'” said Caroline Wilson, a social employee and patient in recovery from West Virginia who coordinated this yr's Save a Life Day.
Last yr, all 13 Appalachian states participated within the day, initiated by the West Virginia-based nonprofit Solutions Oriented Addiction Response. Community organizations in a whole bunch of counties distributed Narcan and fentanyl test strips in parking lots, outside churches and clinics and trained people on the best way to use them. They also work to coach the general public about myths surrounding the drug, including that it shouldn’t be secure to maintain it in easily accessible places. Narcan has no effect on individuals who use it without opioids of their bodies.
This yr, the trouble expanded to 35 states and the slogan was “Naloxone Everywhere.” The group sent out 2,000 emergency kits containing a dose of Narcan to be placed in places like supermarket bathrooms or parks. The 60 tin newspaper boxes – which sell for about $350 each – were purchased with grants.
Aonya Kendrick Barnett's harm reduction organization Safe Streets Wichita arrange one in every of the primary Narcan containers in Kansas in February — she calls them “Nalox boxes.” The boxes, which are actually sold by various corporations, may look different. Some appear to be newspaper boxes, others like vending machines.
Since a Narcan container was installed on the machine – to access the medication, all you will have to do is enter a zipper code on the keypad – around 2,600 packages are distributed every month.
“To say, 'Hey, we have a 24-hour vending machine, come here and get what you need — without making any accusations,' is so brave in this Bible Belt state and helps me break down the stigma,” she said.
Kendrick Barnett said there is no such thing as a room for prejudice in relation to what she calls life-saving health care: “People are going to take medication. It's not our job to judge or condone that. It's our job to make sure they get the necessary health care they need to survive.”
The Save a Life Day box her organization received might be placed outside her recent clinic, which is scheduled to open in October.
Larry Tuite, a 74-year-old stained glass artist from Eerie, Pennsylvania, said he became alarmed as overdoses increased in his town. He began leaving Narcan packets on the windowsills of convenience stores on the town that sell products akin to pipes and rolling papers. He was shocked at how quickly they disappeared.
“No matter how many I give out, I use them up very quickly,” says Tuite, who has stacked the drug boxes against the partitions of his one-room apartment.
The Save a Life Day container he was allowed to establish outside one in every of those stores has helped him distribute much more Narcan. At least a dozen people have been saved by the medication he distributed, he said.
Tasha Withrow, a recovering patient who leads a harm reduction coalition based in Putnam County, West Virginia, said Narcan was never available to her while she was taking opioids.
“People can just reach in and take what they need – that didn't exist back then,” she said as she filled a container in a residential neighborhood earlier this week. “Now to actually see that there is some access – I'm glad we've made at least a little progress in that direction.”
AP journalist Geoff Mulvihill contributed to this report.
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