The University of Texas said it is now providing a potentially life-saving medication used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose for free to everyone on campus. In addition to being available for emergency access in all on-campus residence halls, Narcan, or naloxone, is now available for free to UT students, faculty and staff at the Perry-Castañeda Library in the form of a nasal spray.
The move comes after Austin-Travis County EMS (ATCEMS) saw at least 12 people taken to the hospital early this month due to drug overdoses. There were a total of seven incidents in the downtown area, and two people died on the scene.
Healthyhorns tweeted on Thursday that the Perry-Castañeda Library is both a distribution hub and emergency access point, meaning it can be picked up for immediate use or to take home for potential later use.
“I like to compare it to a fire extinguisher. Hopefully, you’re never going to need to use a fire extinguisher in your life. However, if you have a fire in your house, you really want it there,” Claire Zagorski, program director and harm reduction instructor with Texas Opioid Training Initiative at the University of Texas at Austin, said in an earlier interview with KVUE.
Narcan can also be found at any pharmacy, even without a prescription from a doctor. In Texas, there were more than 4,000 drug overdose-related deaths in 2020, according to the CDC. In Travis County, more than 260 people died due to overdoses.
