TOLEDO, Ohio — Drug overdose deaths in the state of Ohio are down nearly 20% this year compared to last year, according to the CDC, and there are local efforts to keep that trend going.
ProMedica has received a grant from The Ohio Department of Health, enabling the healthcare provider to supply Stop N Go's in northwest Ohio with Narcan boxes.
Health experts are hoping by supplying the convenience stores with these supplies they'll be able to combat the opioid crisis and reverse drug overdoses, should one happen in the store.
Dr. Brian Kaminski with ProMedica said these stores make an ideal location to have readily available life-saving equipment.
"They're good candidates for distributing Naloxone to areas where we have either witnessed opioid overdoses and have had reversals in those areas, or they're in areas where we suspect could experience them in the future," Kaminski said.
Kaminski said these boxes will be free to use and readily accessible, similar to a fire alarm.
"It's fairly easy to use," Kaminski said. "There's two actual devices within the kit that can be used to administer through the nose to reverse an opioid overdose."
Stop N Go employees will also receive training on how to use the boxes.
"Convenience stores, we have all walks of life who shop here," Neal Frandsen, vice president of marketing with Stop N Go said. "We have rich, poor, black, white, Asian, Hispanic, young and old. We have every type of person."
He said this collaboration is vital after multiple overdose incidents, including a recent one at a Columbus location.
"We had Narcan but a particular person never received training for that Narcan and didn't really know how to administer that," Frandsen said. "We called the medics and unfortunately they arrived too late and that young man died."
So far, ProMedica reports a total of 106 known overdose reversals from naloxone kits provided throughout the community from April 2023 through September 2024
As for when people can expect to start seeing these Narcan boxes at Stop N Go, Frandsen said later this month as they are currently in the works.