This story has been updated.
A harm prevention vending machine opened this month to provide faster access to Narcan, a life-saving medication that reverses overdoses within minutes — a first of many coming to San Antonio.
The Narcan vending machine sits in the lobby at Rise Recovery, a nonprofit that offers free services to young people and their families, headquartered in Castle Hills. It’s available to anyone who wants free Narcan from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays.
Narcan, a medication also known as naloxone, reverses overdoses and restores breathing for a person whose breathing has slowed as a result of an overdose.
The nonprofit has one more vending machine to install but hasn’t determined where to place it. Rise Recovery is looking at densely populated areas in San Antonio for its second machine.
In June, the City of San Antonio declared opioid use a public health crisis, recognizing an increase in opioid and stimulant overdoses at local emergency rooms, as well as an increase in overdose deaths across Bexar County.
Rise Recovery’s CEO Evita Morin said the nonprofit’s focus on “harm reduction,” or minimizing the negative effects of substance abuse issues, helps young people pursue goals like graduating from school even while they are struggling with substance use.
The machine, a reused pantyhose vending machine, was donated by Conscience Conduit, a social justice organization, and Livegy, which has a mission of making opioid reversal drugs accessible for all. The Narcan vending machines will feature artwork by a local artist in recovery, Mauro De La Tierra.
On Nov. 1 at the unveiling of the vending machine, Anthony Delabano, founder of Conscious Conduit and Narcandoit, held up a single dose of Narcan. He pointed out a QR code that when scanned will play a 30-second CDC video demonstrating how to administer the Narcan to someone experiencing an opioid overdose.
A machine that avoids face-to-face contact with someone to obtain the lifesaving medication is essential because 29% of young people Rise Recovery serves report using opioids, Morin said.
San Antonio has received loads of free Narcan from the city’s Metropolitan Health Department and Naloxone Texas, an initiative by Be Well Texas at UT Health San Antonio. The free medication is funded through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s state opioid response fund through the Texas Targeted Opioid Response initiative, as well as opioid abatement settlement funds through a legislative act.
Morin said the rise in opioid use among 16 to 18 year olds is happening because people tend to minimize the impact these kind of drugs can have — believing that since you can get them with a prescription, opioids may look harmless.
However, opioids are highly addictive.
Opioids include prescription drugs, such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and codeine. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.
“We’ve had to administer Narcan before. We have kids who are actively struggling with substances who would have died if not for this intervention,” she said.
That’s why parents and friends should have access to Narcan, Morin said. It can cost between $30 to $55 at pharmacies, so eliminating the cost barrier with the free vending machine will expand access.
Rise Recovery plans to deploy more Narcan vending machines to schools and colleges, making it as easy to obtain as other first aid supplies.
During the last legislative session, Texas lawmakers mandated that opioid-countering medications like naloxone be stored on all campuses that serve students in 6th through 12th grade and school personnel should be trained to administer it.
But overdoses at San Antonio-area schools are rare, local officials said.
Most school districts in San Antonio said campus staff, including law enforcement officers and nurses, carry Narcan with them and are trained to spring into action should an overdose occur.
San Antonio Independent School District Police Department Sgt. Michael Dilloway said there have been no specific incidents over the last two decades involving students overdosing on campus.
The Northside Independent School District, the largest in the region and one of the largest in the state, has used Narcan a handful of times in recent years, including twice last school year, said Merry Garcia, the director of health services for the district.
Tracking what kind of drugs students may be taking can be difficult, making intervention more complicated, Garcia said.
“Kids rarely admit what they’ve taken,” Garcia said. “Occasionally we see where they’ll admit to taking a gummy, but obviously we don’t know what ingredients were used so it’s hard, it’s hard to say what we’re seeing mostly.”
Metro Health is advocating at a state level to legalize a safe syringe exchange and drug testing strips to prevent fatal overdoses, said Jesse Higgins, the city’s chief mental health officer.
“The amount of overdoses, I don’t believe that they’re all intentional overdoses,” Higgins said. “I believe that people don’t understand what they’re taking and that these are accidental. Overdoses are something that we can prevent if we had drug testing strips.”
What San Antonio desperately needs is also a center for substance use treatment that accepts all health insurances, especially Medicaid, as well as a nonprofit to provide treatment for uninsured kids, Higgins said.
Right now, children and teens who need residential substance use treatment have to go to Houston, or even out of state for treatment if the substance use treatment center in Houston is full.
That issue most likely won’t be solved until the Texas Legislature increases Medicaid reimbursement rates, because San Antonio has among the highest rates of uninsured patients, Higgins said.
Education reporter Isaac Windes contributed to this story.
