NO ONE HAS TO DIE –
Dec. 30, 2025 – “Naloxone is such a safe, easy-to-use, lifesaving tool, and it’s often treated like, ‘Oh, this is a medicine—we have to safeguard it, we have to restrict it,’” co-author Shelley Facente told Filter. “The takeaway from this is just having it in a box—where people can open it and get to it 24/7—works.” Researchers analyzed data that HRMI staff had been submitting to the state health department, logging how many kits had been taken and from which boxes. They also interviewed 11 people who had played a role in program implementation or accessed the boxes personally. They found that one critical factor in the program’s uptake was 24/7 accessibility—the boxes were placed outside, where the public could still reach them after business hours.
“If it’s 11 pm and they can’t access it, that naloxone isn’t doing any good,” co-author and HRMI founder Pam Lynch told Filter. “I mean, you’re hoping that people are taking kits ahead of time. But we’ve absolutely had situations where people actually drove up to one of our boxes with somebody overdosing in the car and ran up to the box and used the medication on the person in the car.”
