MISSOULA — The Missoula City Council held a special presentation to discuss the installation of vending machines that will distribute Narcan, and other life-saving products, across four locations in Missoula.
United Way of Missoula County and the Missoula Drug Safety Committee are collaborating to install the vending machines at the Johnson Street Shelter, The Missoula Food Bank, Hope Rescue Mission, and the Mountain Line Transfer Center.
The machines are funded by the Independent Emergency Room Physicians Trust and the products inside the Machine will be funded by the Montana Department of Health and Human Services.
Because of this funding, the products inside will be free for anyone to access, people close to the project, are confident these vending machines will be a step in the right direction in fighting the overdose issue.
Leah Fitch Brody from Missoula Public Health spoke on how this can help the issue, “We are having an overdose crisis in our country."
“One of the tools that we have — there are several tools we can use, but one of the tools that we have in our community right now that can be used by anybody is to use Naloxone or Narcan," Brody explained.
One of the main concerns about Narcan is that easy availability would lead to more drug use.
But Shannon Sproull with the United Way of Missoula County addressed that concern during Monday's presentation, “Just as seatbelts don’t encourage people to drive worse."
“We’re looking to prevent injury and death with seatbelts, just as blood alcohol content limits do not encourage people to drink more, we’re trying to keep people from injuring themselves or others and getting rides home," Sproull continued. "We’re looking at harm reduction strategies to make sure people are safe and healthy.”
The vending machines are scheduled to be installed within the first few weeks of April but an exact date has not been set.
