Narcan accessibility expanding in southeast Nebraska

Naloxone, a drug that counteracts the effects of opioid overdoses, is more available in southeast Nebraska.

A collaboration between the Nebraska Pharmacists Association and Behavioral Health Region 5 placed its third naloxone vending machine in Lincoln at The Bridge Behavioral Health. There also are five grab-and-go sites in the city and another in Jansen, a village in Jefferson County.

Amy Holman, project manager for the Nebraska Pharmacists Association, said it’s important to make the medicine, also known as Narcan, more accessible because it still carries stigma.

“A lot of people also think that if you supply people with Narcan, it's just allowing people to continue to use drugs. And in some ways, it might be,” Holman said. “Someone might have an overdose. Some people have numerous overdoses, have Narcan to revive them and continue to use drugs. The hope is that sometime they are going to decide that they need to get help, go into recovery, treatment, that sort of a thing. And again, we just don't want people to die.”

The program started in September, which is when the first vending machine was placed at CenterPointe in Lincoln. Now there are two more available at Matt Talbot Kitchen and Outreach and The Bridge Behavioral Health.

“The vending machines and grab-and-go sites, anyone can go and get those from those sites," Holman said. "But we also want to make sure that people who might have other disparities, homelessness, aren't visiting a pharmacy, don't have access to WiFi to order, or are homeless and don't have an address to ship it to, also have the same access to [Naloxone] easily.”

Holman thinks accessibility is important because she has watched opioid addiction take a hold of someone close to her

“It's important to me to make sure that people have access to it, that people have the treatment that they need, that we have facilities for it, and really just make sure people understand the disease.”

She said they have dispensed over 900 boxes of naloxone since the first vending machine was installed, and on a monthly basis the online orders they distribute range anywhere from 700-1,600 boxes.  

For people outside of Southeastern Nebraska, naloxone can be obtained online for free from Stop Overdose Nebraska’s website, or from more than 150 participating pharmacies around the state.