Annual naloxone distribution day expands to at least 32 states this year

This story was originally published by West Virginia Watch.

An annual naloxone distribution event that started in 2020 with two West Virginia counties will expand to more than 30 states when it’s held this year on Sept. 26, but a co-founder of the event is most hopeful about what will happen in the days after that.

“I think the thing that most excites me about Save a Life Day is the day after,” said Joe Solomon, a co-founder of the West Virginia overdose prevention group SOAR WV, which sponsors the event. “So many people get hooked on saving lives, and they ask, ‘What’s next?’ They get involved with advocating for harm reduction or starting up street outreach teams. 

“Basically, Save a Life Day is about new beginnings in more ways than one,” he said. “It’s about second chances for communities, not just individuals.”

The event started in response to increasing overdoses during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This year, volunteers from 343 counties in every state east of the Mississippi River and beyond will distribute the opioid antidote drug during Save a Life Day. All 55 counties in West Virginia have volunteers participating. During last year’s event, volunteers distributed more than 45,000 doses of naloxone throughout Appalachia. 

In 2024, coordinator Caroline Wilson has her sights set even higher. 

“It’s going to be huge hopefully,” Wilson said. “I keep saying that I’m hoping we’re going to get out 100,000 doses of naloxone this year.”

Wilson, a Maryland resident who works in Berkeley County, has been a county organizer for Save a Life Day for the last three years. This is her first year coordinating the event. 

“This is really meaningful work for me, as a person in recovery,” Wilson said. “We all want to help people just like us and also people not like us.”

With grant funding, this year organizers are sending 60 naloxone vending boxes to a dozen West Virginia counties and to at least one every participating state. The metal boxes resemble newspaper boxes. The boxes cost about $500 each and are made by a Texas company that sells them on the e-commerce website Etsy. 

Charleston has four of the vending boxes, which are used frequently, said Sarah Stone, a co-founder and co-director for SOAR. The boxes are often stocked also with Plan B pills, drug testing strips and COVID-19 tests. 

 “What makes those really unique is that if anyone has any shame [about drug use] there’s nobody waiting at the box to ask them questions,” Stone said. 

About half of SOAR’s naloxone distribution these days is done through the boxes, Solomon said.

In addition to the vending boxes, organizers are sending “wall boxes” that hold naloxone and CPR masks to sites all over the country. The boxes are converted yellow pencil boxes sold at Target. A sticker on the boxes’ outside notes its “emergency naloxone.” One on the inside has instructions for the drug’s use. Adhesives to hold them to the wall. 

Solomon said they were inspired to make the boxes after seeing what harm reduction group Project Mayday has done with pencil boxes and the Drug Institute of West Virginia has done with their drug overdose reversal kit, ONEBox.

“We wanted to make something that still felt like it would be really handy and adrenaline proof,” he said. 

Grant funding has also allowed organizers to mail more than 400 wall boxes to sites within Kanawha County.

A goal of the event is to save lives by distributing the opioid overdose antidote. 

In West Virginia, the number of drug overdose deaths was down nearly 2%t last year compared with 2022, but still double the national rate, according to preliminary data. 

Nationally, the number of drug overdose deaths was down by roughly 3% last year, according to preliminary data. 

The event is also about reducing the stigma associated with naloxone. 

Wilson said she can tell by the reaction that people have to being handed the opioid antidote that stigma has lessened over the years.

“I feel like it’s definitely more accepted and I think a lot more people who aren’t involved in substance use work, who aren’t involved in the recovery community see it as something valuable and something that they can do to just be prepared,” she said. “It’s just a small way to find a solution.”

Solomon said it feels remarkable that West Virginia — a place he describes as America’s overdose capital because it has historically had the country’s highest drug overdose death rate — can send a “siren of hope” when it comes to addiction. 

In a city and state where officials have made it more difficult for drug users to access clean syringe services, Solomon, who is also a member of Charleston City Council, said he’s hopeful that the event eventually leads to more expanded harm reduction access. 

“As more people save lives on Save a Life Day, after it’s done, they ask, ‘How else can I save lives?’” Solomon said. “And the number one way you can save lives in Kanawha County, is to advocate for and expand and syringe service programs.”

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story had the incorrect title for Sarah Stone, who is the co-director of SOAR WV.