- The East Lansing Fire Department announced they're distributing 60 new Narcan kits to community housing.
- Narcan temporarily reverses the effects of opioid overdoses long enough to seek medical care.
- Video shows Fire Inspector Blake Holt and Julia Miller of Punks With Lunch discussing the importance of the initiative.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
I'm your East Lansing Neighborhood Reporter Colin Jankowski. A medicine that can temporarily reverse the effects of an opioid overdose is now more accessible in East Lansing.
Wednesday, the East Lansing Fire Department announced 60 new public Narcan kits set up in community housing to make the medicine easily available in case of an emergency.
"It's creeping up everywhere, whether we want it to or not," Blake Holt said.
While East Lansing Fire Inspector Blake Holt says opioid overdose aren't something his department has dealt with much, the problem is growing across the country. And, the initiative in the neighborhood is meant to get in front of the problem and make Narcan easily accessible to those who may need it.
"It's showing up in things that we never thought it would be a part of before," Holt said. "So those accidental pieces are coming into play, and we want to be prepared."
Harm reduction groups in Lansing, like Punks With Lunch, say making Narcan accessible is necessary to help save lives, which is the ultimate priority.
It increases the chances of a person surviving," Punks With Lunch Executive Director Julia Miller said. "People who use substances, we want them to be as safe as possible and we want to increase their chances of survival rates. If they have as many safe options as possible we can hopefully assist them to be as healthy and make safer choices."
Back in East Lansing, Inspector Holt says they also plan on keeping smaller boxes of Narcan at the station as another safe place to pick up the medicine.
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