Philadelphia’s first Narcan Near Me tower/kiosk has been installed outside of the Blackwell Regional Library at 52nd and Sansom, as part of the City’s new initiative to provide free access to life-saving naloxone and other opioid overdose reversal supplies.

The newly installed kiosk, supplied by Canadian firm Dispension, Inc., gives a 24-hour seven days a week access to Narcan. People can anonymously receive Narcan and other supplies, such as gloves, face shields and instructions on how to administer the medication. The kiosk contains 22 overdose prevention kits – each of them contains two doses of Narcan. To get access to an overdose prevention kit, all you need to do is tap the touch screen on the front of the machine. The kiosk can also connect to 911 in the case of an emergency.

The first two Narcan Near Me towers will be installed in West Philadelphia, with additional locations coming later.

“Since 2017, Philadelphia has been fighting rising overdose deaths due to the spread of fentanyl in the heroin being sold in the city,” Philadelphia Public Health Commissioner Dr. Cheryl Bettigole said at the Narcan Near Me tower opening event. “West Philly is one of the places that has been hardest hit by the fact that fentanyl can potentially be in any drug… We need to make sure that people here in West Philly have free, easy access to Narcan today.”

In 2020, 1,214 overdose deaths were recorded in Philadelphia. Overdose deaths in Black, non-Hispanic Philadelphians rose by nearly 30 percent. There was also a slight increase in overdose deaths in Hispanic Philadelphians – by 1.1 percent, while overdose deaths among white Philadelphians decreased by nearly 10 percent compared to 2019.

Visit this page to find more information on how else you can get naloxone for free.

(Photo courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia)