“They look like newspaper stands,” said Kaci Warren, a harm reduction health educator at Greene County Public Health. “Very bright purple boxes, and those also have Narcan in them.”
However, the purple kiosks aren’t climate controlled. The main difference between these and the naloxone cabinet now at Abiding Christ is that the latter is weatherproof, and therefore available 24 hours a day.
“Businesses will close, and if someone can’t get into the business, they can’t access that Narcan. That’s really, really prevalent on the weekends,” Warren said.
In 2022, Greene County Public Health distributed over 4,300 naloxone kits, with community members reporting 793 overdose reversals, according to health department data. Greene County experienced 47 overdose deaths in 2022.
However, initial data from 2024 shows a 69% decrease in overdose deaths in Greene County compared to 2023, according to the health department.
“I think it has a lot to do with the amount of Narcan we are distributing,” Warren said. “And so people, instead of passing away from a drug overdose, they’re being revived using that Narcan.”
Another potential factor is drug supply, she said.
“It’s ever changing. And so sometimes we see different drugs and drug markets come into the area, and so just trying to be ahead of that and learning what’s going on in our communities, I think is super important,” she said.
While Montgomery County doesn’t have comparable outdoor kiosks, the county Public Health department distributes a huge volume of Narcan annually, said Dawn Schwartz, project manager of the Community Overdose Action Team.
Montgomery County distributes a large amount of Narcan through workers with their CarePoint Syringe Services program. Though the program primarily focuses on preventing the spread of hepatitis, HIV and other diseases by allowing people to exchange dirty needles for clean ones, the organization also connects people to substance abuse treatment and other health and social services. Providing Narcan is part of the harm reduction component, Schwartz said.
Staff with the Syringe Services program have distributed almost 600 Narcan kits, a 5% increase from this time last year, she added. Since their inception in 2015, the Syringe Services program has distributed more than 15,000 Narcan and naloxone kits.
Other organizations have also begun giving out Narcan. Project Dawn through Samaritan Behavioral Health has also distributed roughly 400 Narcan kits between January and March of this year, Schwartz said.
Several area businesses in both Dayton and Montgomery County also have what are called NaloxBoxes on site, which are overdose kits complete with a breathing mask, two doses of Narcan, and instructions.
NaloxBoxes are treated like automated external defibrillators (AEDs), Schwartz said, in the sense that schools, hospitals, businesses, and other places have them on site in case of emergency.
“Every person that you have the ability to save is a mother, a son, a friend, a coworker ... and ultimately, our goal is to keep somebody alive until they get to the point where they are like, ‘I’m ready for treatment. I’m tired of this,’” Schwartz said.
Locally owned businesses are often more receptive to keeping NaloxBoxes onsite compared to large corporate chains, Schwartz said, but stigma against people struggling with drug addictions remains at all levels.
“We’ve got frontline workers in (corporate-owned) businesses going, ‘Oh my gosh, yes, we need it, please,’ because they see what’s happening, but it’s shot down by corporate.”
People can and do recover from drug addition and substance abuse, but only if they are given a second chance at life, Warren said.
“Drug addiction is a disease,” she said. “It does alter brain chemistry and brain functions. And people do recover. We hear success stories every single day at the health department, and I think Narcan is a great way for people to get a second chance.”
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