100 vending machines to offer Narcan
Goal to place at least 1 in each Wayne County city, township
Wayne County announced Thursday it will deploy 100 Narcan vending machines across the county in an effort to keep people from dying from drug overdoses.
The Narcan, which can reverse an opioid overdose if given properly and in time, will be free of charge. It will be packaged as a kit: each kit containing two 4 mg doses of the Narcan, which is also known by its generic name: naloxone.
Wayne State Unviersity’s Center for Behavioral Health and Justice will review data and determine where overdoses are most likely to occur and place the vending machines in those locations. The goal, according to a news release from Wayne County, is to place at least one vending machine in each of the county’s 45 cities and townships. The news release also said the new Narcan vending machines represent the largest municipal investment in Narcan access in history.
Over the last two years, Narcan vending machines that dispense Narcan for free have gained in popularity in Michigan and across the country. For a map showing the locations of existing vending machines in Michigan: https://shorturl.at/jkpAN.
More than 100,000 people a year die from drug overdoses in the United States. In 2021, roughly a third of the state’s overdose deaths, or 902, occurred in Wayne County, according to the news release. The majority of those deaths involved illicit fentanyl, the super-potent synthetic opioid that is cut into other street drugs.
“Fentanyl is a poison that’s taking lives and destroying families. That’s why my administration is taking the lead on fighting this deadly crisis,” Wayne County Executive Warren Evans said in a prepared statement. “Part of that means making sure the disease of drug use is not a death sentence as it has been for too many young people in Wayne County and across our country.”