The St. Louis County Department of Health will soon distribute the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone for free at county public libraries.
The nasal spray, also known by its brand name Narcan, has been available at five of the county’s 20 library branches since July. Visitors can ask library employees for naloxone, and librarians will distribute it with no questions asked, officials said Thursday.
“Libraries are a trusted and safe space,” county Library Director Kristen Sorth said. “People come here looking for answers and solutions to all kinds of things.”
Naloxone, which can also be injected, blocks the effects of opioids in the body of someone who is overdosing. The medicine can restore breathing to a person whose respiration has slowed or stopped. It has no effect on someone who has not taken opioids and does not work on someone who has overdosed on a non-opioid drug.
When bought at a pharmacy, the two-dose box of Narcan costs nearly $50, county officials said. Making it free and easy to access could save lives.
The county has spent $125,000 on naloxone kits this year and has distributed more than 1,000 doses in 2023, health officials said. The money for the naloxone distribution at the library comes out of the county’s budget.
Officials said that the naloxone was for people to take home with them, not because people were overdosing inside the library.
After rising for years, the annual number of reported drug overdose deaths in St. Louis County decreased for the first time in 2022, though 449 people in St. Louis County died from overdoses that year. That year, 299 of those deaths were attributed to opioids.
The decrease is in part due to community partnerships that have flooded the region with naloxone, said Dr. Kanika Cunningham, St. Louis County's health director.
“People who use drugs should feel safe and welcome by our community and health care systems,” she said. “It’s important to realize harm reduction is not about promoting illegal or harmful activity, it's about reducing the negative consequences of drug use without requiring abstinence.”
Community partnerships and naloxone availability are two pillars of the county’s plan to fight overdose deaths, Cunningham said.
Nonprofits and local health departments have distributed the reversal drug for free at clinics, recreation centers andsmall community “naloxboxes.” County residentscan request free Narcan on the health department’s website.
Libraries have become a center for public health and community outreach, particularly since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Sorth said. Workers distributed COVID-19 testing kits and vaccines at branches during the pandemic, and at some locations people can work with social workers.
“We try to respond to the needs of the community, and when they tell us they need something we try and respond,” she said. “That means offering some very traditional library services like books and summer reading club, but also offering things like diapers and Narcan kits.”
