DCCCA offers naloxone through a vending machine outside of a Lawrence Transit station near the University of Kansas campus. (Maya Smith for Kansas Reflector)
TOPEKA — Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach says he keeps a box of naloxone in his pickup truck.
It’s a lifesaving tool that can fit in the glovebox, and Kobach wants to make the product more accessible to Kansans.
Naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan, is an overdose-reversal medication that can restore someone’s breathing within minutes and is known for its effectiveness in combating the opioid epidemic.
A state grant review board unanimously approved Friday a $177,000 grant for the Attorney General’s Office to transform unused news racks into naloxone distribution boxes.
“If you’re willing to keep it in your glovebox in your car, you should be doing that, because we need it distributed everywhere to potentially save lives,” Kobach said at a Friday meeting of the Kansas Fights Addiction Grant Review Board.
The idea was inspired by Emily’s Hope, an organization in South Dakota that says it was the first in the nation to repurpose news racks to increase access to naloxone and reduce the stigma around drug use. The program has been “extremely successful,” said Angela Kennecke, president and CEO of Emily’s Hope. Since April, the organization has established 25 open boxes in 11 cities, and it is working on 12 more. That has amounted to roughly 8,200 kits distributed.
“I thought we should be doing the same thing,” Kobach said.
He wants to place repurposed newspaper boxes on college and university campuses, of which there are about 40 in Kansas.
Kobach’s request focused on illegally made fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid that caused more than half of overdose deaths in 2023 in Kansas, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Kansas recently surpassed 1,500 total deaths from fentanyl, he said. Of the 615 overdose deaths in Kansas in 2023, nearly 60% had at least one potential opportunity for intervention, the data said. In almost 45% of deaths, a bystander was present.
Pat George, the board chair, said the overdose crisis is happening now.
“Our primary mission, I’ve always felt, is saving lives and saving families, so this fits right in,” George said.
The addiction grant review board is charged with deciding where to allocate the millions of dollars that have poured into the state from settlements with pharmaceutical companies, which were sued for playing a part in the opioid epidemic. Kansas has received $90 million to date, said Shanna Zimmer, chief financial officer of the Sunflower Foundation, a nonprofit that administers the funds for the state. About $74 million remains in the bank.
The attorney general envisioned the grant paying for public service announcements, social media and video advertising, distribution boxes and 7,000 boxes of naloxone, each typically containing two doses. The majority of the grant, about $150,000, will be for advertising, Kobach said.
Education is a significant piece, he said, because of the pervasive nature of fentanyl. It appears in counterfeit pills, often mixed with other drugs.
A Douglas County-based social services organization, DCCCA, runs the Kansas Naloxone Program. It has placed five vending machines across the state that distribute naloxone like bags of chips or candy bars. Three more are on the way, said Chrissy Mayer, chief community-based services officer for DCCCA.
Between October and June, the organization distributed about 40,000 kits of naloxone across Kansas, either through vending machines or by mail. That’s 80,000 doses.
“We know that overdoses continue to increase, and this is a really easy way to save someone’s life,” Mayer said.
The organization places boxes at locations in Hutchinson, Lawrence, Kansas City, Kansas, Salina and Wichita, based on data mapping overdose hotspots. New machines are expected soon in Garden City, Overland Park and Pittsburg.
People who want naloxone from one of DCCCA’s machines enter their zip code on a keypad, then the machine dispenses a kit, Mayer said. The machine in Wichita is typically restocked weekly. In Hutchinson, it’s restocked about every two weeks, and the rest are usually restocked once a month.
Mayer said “there are some interesting assumptions that people might make” regarding who uses the vending machines. Many who use the vending machines are from what might be classified as more affluent ZIP codes, she said.
“That just demonstrates opioid overdose affects everybody,” Mayer said.
She added: “Your ZIP code doesn’t really matter.”
DCCCA offers multiple training options on its website for the proper administration of naloxone.
The Kansas Attorney General’s Office plans to have naloxone kits available at its table at the Kansas State Fair, which is scheduled for Sept. 5-14 in Hutchinson.
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