KOKOMO, Ind. — The first Narcan vending machine is now operational at a public library in Kokomo.
It’s the first of what will eventually be 19 Narcan vending machines throughout the state as part of an initiative from Gov. Eric Holcomb to make the drug more readily available in the event someone comes across someone else overdosing on opioids.
It’s an effort that Hoosiers like Tammy Stucker appreciate since her son was the victim of an overdose and was saved by a dose of Narcan.
“I find it very sad that we have that need (for Narcan). It’s the world we live in today,” she told WISH-TV. “He (her son) is doing well today. Clean, sober, and progressing with life. I’m thankful that he had that opportunity to have that administered to him.”
The vending machine at the Kokomo-Howard County Public Library is simple. You punch in a code that is displayed on the machine and you get a dose of Narcan free of charge. The machine can hold as many as 300 doses of Narcan.
The machine is only available while the library is open, but for anyone who needs Narcan after hours, there is a lockbox, called a Naloxbox, outside the library with doses of Narcan inside. Some in the community were a little skeptical of the lock box being located outside the library.
“Maybe if it was at a jail or a police station,” said Trisha Shively with the library. “There is a little bit of stigma for some people in going to those places so I just feel like (the library) is a safer place for people to feel more comfortable to get a medication that could save a loved one’s life.”
More Narcan vending machines will be popping up soon in other places around Indiana.
