Naloxone

The St. Louis County Department of Health will soon distribute the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone for free at county public libraries. Visitors can ask library employees for naloxone, and librarians will distribute it with no questions asked.

Data points to a nearly 75% increase in overdoses in Missouri since 2019, and last year was the second consecutive year that fentanyl accounted for over two-thirds of overdoses in Missouri.

The overdose reversal medication naloxone is now available for purchase over-the-counter, but advocates say it’s still cost prohibitive — and that stigma continues to impede access.

Health workers in St. Louis will soon be placing dozens of life-saving “naloxboxes” in St. Louis and St. Louis County neighborhoods where there are many opioid drug overdoses and few clinics and hospitals. The boxes contain the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone and will be put in high-visibility, public areas.

In the first three quarters of 2021, there were 780 overdose deaths in the St. Louis region, about the same as during the same period in 2020, according to the Missouri Institute of Mental Health at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. The St. Louis area accounted for nearly half of fatalities statewide.

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