Naomi Girson | opinions editor

Naloxone, often sold under the brand name Narcan, a life-saving drug used to combat opioid overdose used to be found behind the counter of the pharmacy and was only available by prescription. But now, free public-use naloxone vending machines are popping up all over the place — including, in Downtown Pittsburgh.

The free, 24/7 public access vending machine can be found at the Allegheny County Human Services Building located at 1 Smithfield St. The Allegheny County Health Department and the Allegheny County Department of Human Services collaborated to install the vending machine earlier this month.

As of last year, an analysis conducted by CNN found that 33 states had naloxone vending machines, and more have future plans to add them to their streets.

Katie Wooten, overdose prevention program manager for the Allegheny County Health Department, said that within the first operational week of the machine, they restocked almost half of the roughly 100 naloxone kits in the inventory.

They also have four wall-mounted cabinets and 11 newspaper-style dispensers distributed strategically around the county that also offer free naloxone kits, though these are not operational 24 hours a day like the vending machine.

“We provide a lot of naloxone to organizations, community groups, and anybody can go on to our website and request naloxone or test strips and request training,” Wooten said.

The work in their program spans from case management to care navigation, and they want to work with people who may need treatment in different kinds of services such as behavioral health, housing or medicine to treat opioid use disorder, Wooten said.

The Allegheny County Health Department installed a cabinet in Duquesne’s Health Services building this summer. It houses naloxone and fentanyl test strips that students can take, free of charge.

Dan Gittins, associate director of DU CARES, said that although naloxone is important to be aware of, he is not worried about opioid overdoses at Duquesne, but rather alcohol, marijuana and cocaine usage.

Naloxone only works on the opiate molecule, so a drug like cocaine, a stimulant, will not react to it. However, it can reduce the effects of fentanyl, which can be found in cocaine, Gittins said.

“The risk is that with fentanyl … [the] working dose might be the equivalent of three grains of salt or three grains of sand. [A] fatal dose could be the equivalent of 10 grains of salt or 10 grains of sand. I mean, it’s just such a small, small, small gap between the working dose in the fatal dose, whereas with alcohol, most people would never get there, because they’d be passed out beforehand,” Gittins said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2023, more than 105,000 people died of a drug overdose, with more than 70% of those deaths credited to opioids.

“The overdose rates, since 2016, have been decreasing steadily. So that big opiate epidemic, we’re on a slide down. We’re not out of the water yet. There’s still way too much. And going to a young person’s funeral who overdosed on heroin is about the worst thing, the saddest thing that there is,” Gittins said.

Though overdoses have decreased in the last couple years, efforts are stronger than ever to help combat the dangers of drug addiction and overdose, according to the CDC.

Gittins said that students should have naloxone because they are out in places that he is not.

“Why I do support our students having (naloxone) is because I’m not going to the bars. I’m not going to the fast food restaurants on the South Side or Oakland or, when most of our staff is not going there, our students are.”

Plus, Gittins said, all police officers keep naloxone on them, so it’s never far if you need it.

Robert Laux, assistant clinical pharmacy professor at Duquesne, said everyone should know about naloxone because everyone has a connection to drug abuse in one way or another, whether it be a family member, friend or a neighbor that’s been affected by this opioid epidemic.

“Recently, we’ve seen about a 25% reduction in the last couple years, in overdoses, and that’s because of the awareness, the education of folks to the availability of naloxone, and the ability of naloxone to basically save lives,” Laux said. “Don’t hide this under a bushel. If you know of someone that’s using and you have some of this (naloxone) around, then you can save a life.”

Naomi Girson can be reached at girsonn@duq.edu