Free Narcan vending machines in Wichita and Hutchinson

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – Naloxone is a life-saving drug for an opioid overdose commonly known by its name brand Narcan. Now, it’s free for residents in Wichita and Hutchinson.

“As someone that’s lost a lot of people to the opioid crisis, and even in the last 30 days, I’ve been to three or four funerals. You know the fact that we can save 100 or so lives a month or more. I think the machine holds 190 units of Narcan. That’s 190 lives that we can impact just for a simple life-saving drug,” Quinn Duncan with Second Chance Bail Bonds said.

DCCCA, Healthy Blue, Safe Streets Wichita, and Second Chance Bail Bonds put a Narcan vending machine in front of Second Chance Bail Bonds to increase accessibility.

“We do know in less than a week of being open, we’ve distributed over 100 kits, so that’s potentially 100 lives saved. And we don’t know how many have been used yet. I’m sure as time goes on, those stories will come out,” Healthy Blue plan president Bryan Baier said.

Other areas getting the Narcan vending machines are Crawford, Douglas, Wyandotte and Johnson counties.

“If people choose to use substances, that shouldn’t be a death sentence for them. We need to give them a chance to get into recovery. So really naloxone saves lives, and the only thing it really enables is breathing,” DCCCA Chief Community-Based Services Officer Chrissy Mayer said.

The machine in front of Second Chance Bail Bonds was put up a week ago.

“So we did a data analysis of the state and looked at zip codes where we had the highest incidents of opioid use, and this was one of the hotspots of the state. So glad we can put a machine here where it’s going to do the most good,” Baier said.

The vending machine in Hutchinson was sponsored by DCCCA, Healthy Blue, Kansas Recovery Network and New Beginnings. That machine is located at the Crossover Recovery Center.