Denver gets more naloxone vending machines
People in Denver now have more access to naloxone, the medicine that reverses an opioid overdose. The Denver Police Department and nonprofit The Naloxone Project installed three vending machines that provide the lifesaving drug for free.
CBS
"It's really as simple as just opening the door, grabbing a kit, and giving someone a second chance at life," said Joshua Jacoves, Program Director at The Naloxone Project.
This comes as Denver reports nearly 400 deaths from drug overdose in 2024, which is down about 21% compared to the year before. In 2023, the city saw more than 500 deaths – the majority from opioids.
"Working in the ER, I know that every person who arrives after dying from an overdose, opioid overdose, is a death that did not need to happen," Dr. Don Stader, Executive Director of The Naloxone Project, said at a press conference Tuesday. "That's because we have an antidote that is easy to use and that can effectively reverse the effects of fentanyl or an opioid."
Now, outside DPD Headquarters, Station 6 and Station 2, anyone can grab a box containing two doses of naloxone, also known as Narcan.
"We understand that there are people who have substance misuse challenges, and we are really more concerned about saving people's lives than making arrests," said DPD Chief Ron Thomas when asked about hesitancy by users to go to a police station for naloxone.
Since The Naloxone Project began its partnership with DPD about 18 months ago, Jacoves said the nonprofit has provided the department thousands of naloxone kits. First providing officers with the medicine so they could use it when responding to an overdose call, then as "leave behind kits" that officers could leave with people they believed could be at risk of an overdose, and now with the three vending machines.
"Our first vending machine is at the Coalition for the Homeless, and we stock that at least twice a week," Jacoves said. "We have a dedicated coordinator and a network of volunteers that make sure that at all times there are kits in these machines."
CBS
While the nonprofit cannot track use of the kits and how many lives they've potentially saved, Jacoves said at minimum they've given more than 200 people a second chance at life. Still, the nonprofit is often questions if naloxone in free vending machines around the city is enabling drug use.
"This is such a common misconception," explained Stader, "but we've done scientific studies, but also common sense, to inform us. Comparing naloxone to something that enables drug use is the same as labeling an AED as something that enables heart attacks, or an EpiPen as something that enables someone to get allergies. Naloxone enables one thing and one thing only, naloxone enables survival."
Each dose costs about $25, but its ability to save a life is priceless to Stader.
"People often ask that sustainability question -- how are you going to fund this? And I think from a public health perspective, there is nothing more effective than $25 to save a life," he said. "If someone has to be reversed from an overdose 100 times, that is still cheaper than one emergency department visit for an opioid overdose."
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