Easy access to Narcan and Fentanyl testing strips is now available in Manitowoc County.
A ribbon cutting hosted by the Chamber Manitowoc County and the Northeastern Wisconsin Area Health and Education Center (NEWAHEC) officially opens a new public health vending machine, making it the first in the county to provide Narcan and the testing strips to hopefully start slowing overdoses.
Prevention Program Coordinator Emily Longmeyer-Wolf tells Seehafernews.com that NEWAHEC’s Substance Use Prevention Coalition has been working for two years to get the vending machine.
“We partnered with the Manitowoc Police Department to identify fatal and nonfatal overdoses,” she explained. “So, we took that data from 2023 and identified that actually our office, since it’s located downtown, is in a hot zone for where overdoes have been occurring.”
Before the ribbon cutting, NEWAHEC showed a video talking about the story of Alex Hunt, The Haven Manitowoc County’s Executive Director, who was saved by Narcan when it wasn’t readily available back when he was using drugs.
He’s since become an advocate for people to carry the life-saving drug and explained that the Manitowoc County-based healthcare group has increased access to it.
“From community members, people that are in recovery, and also from like police departments that are responding to the scenes of overdoses and things, finding Narcan on scene and being able to utilize that on top of what they have with them.”
Depending on how severe the overdose is, Hunt noted that it can take five or six doses of Narcan to revive someone.
But he also explained that Narcan is safe.
“Narcan has zero negative side effects,” he stated. “There is no harmful purpose for Narcan. And it serves no purpose but to reverse an overdose.”
The vending machine is located outside of NEWAHEC’s office on York Street in Manitowoc.
If someone wants to get Narcan, they just have to enter the code 1234, enter their zip code, and then their age.
Then they will be able to dispense two items from the machine.
The location was picked by studying where overdoses cluster in the community and where overdoses could be higher around the city.
