MILLBURY, Ohio — Narcan, a nasal spray also known a naloxone that can be used when someone is experiencing an overdose, hasn't always been easy for people to get.
In Lucas County, Narcan kits are available through the Toledo Fire and Rescue Department, Sylvania Fire/EMS and the Springfield Township Fire Department.
But in Wood County, the Lake Township Fire Department is becoming the first fire department in Wood County to offer free Narcan kits.
Lake Township Firefighter and Community Risk Reduction Coordinator, Becky Rosebrock, said the community needs those kits. In 2023 alone, Lake Township fire has had to administer Narcan 15 times, she said.
Rosebrock said the fire department used Narcan 21 times in 2022.
That's why the department is now part of the statewide overdose prevention program called Project DAWN -- Deaths Avoided With Naloxone -- which makes Narcan kits publically available.
"We've heard stories and hear countless times of people who have been Narcan'd five, six, seven even 10 times. But they're here," Todd Crandell, the founder of Lucas County-based addiction recovery and prevention nonprofit Racing for Recovery, said.
Crandell, who formerly struggled with addiction himself, called Narcan "the second chance drug."
He said it's a tool to save someone's life and help them find a new way to be sober, especially since more drugs are being laced with fentanyl.
"We've had quite a few runs recently where people have thought they were just buying crushed-up Percocets. It ended up that the crushed-up Percocet that they were buying was laced with fentanyl," Rosebrock said.
Each kit offered by Lake Township fire has two doses of the Narcan nasal spray.
It can be used to help reverse an overdose and has worked in most cases, but not everyone.
"The message is definitely not to keep using drugs and Narcan can save you," Crandell said. "The message is, we have this life-saving drug that can give you a second chance to never make those choices to use drugs and alcohol again."
Rosebrock added that she wants people to know Narcan is not addictive, and it should only be used in an emergency, not as something people rely on.
For information on how to get a free Narcan kit, click here.