MINNEAPOLIS — Outside Minneapolis Fire Station 21, the fire chief, mayor, health commissioner and community partners unveiled a vending machine Wednesday filled with free NARCAN, the naloxone nasal spray designed to rapidly reverse an opioid overdose.
Available for community use 24/7, they say the machine is the city's first. More could be installed in the future.
"We know that this is a drug and specifically fentanyl that has taken control of people's life like nothing that we've seen before, and we know that we have the tools to help," Mayor Jacob Frey said. "We have the tools to prevent someone from dying in the form of this NARCAN vending machine right here. We also have the tools to help people get better so that's what we're working towards in the City of Minneapolis."
The initiative is especially meaningful to Christopher Burks, program director of Twin Cities Recovery Project. He's in long-term recovery from 30 years of addiction.
"It's been 4 years since I've had the use of any substance," Burks said of his journey.
Before the milestones, there were medical miracles. NARCAN saved his life seven separate times, he says. While paramedics administered the life-saving drug six of those times, a friend was able to do it for him once in 2016.
"I had gotten a hold of a nasal NARCAN thing and it was sitting in my bedroom and nobody really knew what it was," Burks recalled. "Only thing I knew was you just stuck it up somebody's nose if they had overdosed. So my friend had came over and as we were using, he asked me what it was and I told him. I was joking, 'You make sure you shove this up my nose real far and hit that button if I fall out,' and we laughed and we joked. 10 minutes later I was, I was in the front yard dead."
Burks grew emotional as he told the story, emphasizing that individuals don't need to be first responders to use NARCAN and potentially save a life.
That's also why city officials say the NARCAN boxes in the vending machine are free for everyone, no questions asked. Just push the corresponding numbered buttons and out comes the NARCAN. There are 2 doses in each box.
According to the instructions, the first step when checking for a suspected overdose is to yell "Wake up" and shake the person gently. If the person isn't awake, insert the nozzle into either nostril and push the bottom of the plunger. Call 911 immediately after giving the first dose. Continue to give doses every 2-3 minutes until the person wakes up, and stay on scene until paramedics arrive.
City officials say risk of death dramatically increases approximately five minutes after someone overdoses, so it's important to administer the reversal drug as quickly as possible.
Located at 3209 E 38th St, Fire Station 21 serves the Longfellow, Nokomis and Powderhorn neighborhoods. Officials say the $10,000 pilot program is starting in those areas due to frequent substance use there, with 74 opioid overdoses suspected to have occurred so far this year, 4 of them fatal.
"More often than not, those overdose victims are Native or Black," Frey said. "Native people are 29 times more likely to suffer from an overdose."
The machine outside Fire Station 21 will be refilled once it's down to a quarter full.
"Basically what we're saying is we care about community by putting this vending machine here," Burks said.
Twin Cities Recovery Project has a growing partnership with the fire department. At Fire Station 14 in north Minneapolis, the organization provides free, 24-hour support for those struggling with substance abuse.
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