City Council to discuss making Narcan more accessible in El Paso public facilities
Published: Tue, 05/23/23
City Council to discuss making Narcan more accessible in El Paso public facilities
Narcan is medicine that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
[Credit: KFOX14]
KFOX 14
by Nasya Mancini
EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — Opioid overdose continues to be the number one cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 45, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As the crisis continues, El Paso city leaders could make it easier for people to get the life-saving drug Narcan.
Narcan can be administered in the form of a nasal spray and reverses an overdose.
“It’s like a fire extinguisher, you wouldn’t not have one of those in a city facility, even though you could. If it saves one life, that’s huge," said El Paso City Council Rep. Alexandra Annello.
Tuesday, the City Council is set to discuss making Narcan more accessible in public facilities, which could include inside libraries and on public transportation.
“Since we haven’t had these things, police officers, firefighters, EMS workers have gone to nonprofits who have them and asked them for supply," said Annello.
Nasya Mancini reports on City Council to discuss making Narcan more accessible in El Paso public facilities< >Annello brought the initiative forward to the City Council. She couldn't provide KFOX14 an exact number on how much the implementation would cost, but said part of it could come from grant money.
Annello: “The national opioid lawsuits really provided a significant amount of funding across the country to individual states that then pass them down to their communities so that’s how were able to fund this.”
Reporter Nasya Mancini: "Do we know how much we would be getting for the funding and how long that would last? Would we get it yearly or periodically?
Annello : “I can’t tell you the exact amounts, a lot of that was talked about in executive. There are different pots of money specifically for cities. There are additional money that haven't totally been decided on how those will go out. But Our mental health authority has worked closely with our deputy city manager, have worked on applying for grants to help our police department.”
Another part of the plan to provide Narcan is the training.
“In 2021, there was over 100,000 people who died from opioid overdoses in the U.S. 97 of those were in El Paso," said Jamie Bailey, chair for El Paso Harm Reduction Alliance.
She said training is one thing and access is another, as Narcan can cost $100 to $175 out of pocket.
“We live in a city that is very uninsured. Most of the people that live in El Paso are from a lower economic bracket. Asking people to purchase Narcan out of pocket is just prohibitory expensive. I'm hopeful and optimistic that the council will support us," said Bailey.
El Paso Harm Reduction Alliance will present at Tuesday's City Council meeting.