As you look around the main concourse at East Side Neighborhood Services, you’ll see the usual array of lifesaving equipment: a fire extinguisher, a defibrillator for heart attacks, a blood pressure cuff.
Now, near the front door, there’s a new addition, and it looks like a newspaper vending box, but it isn’t.
It’s a news rack converted into a box containing naloxone, also called Narcan, a drug that immediately counteracts an overdose of opioids. The naloxone kits are free.
In Minnesota, three people on average die every day from opioid overdose, mainly from the super-strong opioid fentanyl. In Hennepin County, the average is one death per day. It’s an epidemic of horrifying proportions and it’s getting worse.
The immediate presence of a drug that will counteract a drug overdose could save lives, a lot of lives.
The “Save a Life Stations” are the brainchild of two Northeasters who have their own experience of addiction. Jim Barrett and Andrew Kamin-Lyndgaard met in a 12-step recovery program over 20 years ago. Barrett has since started working full time counseling people in recovery.
The two often talked about the opioid crisis in Minneapolis and how so many deaths could be avoided if naloxone was readily available. “There’s so much stigma around this.”
Then Barrett had a brainstorm: “I was trying to figure out a quick and easy way to put naloxone into people’s hands, and I called the Star Tribune to see if they had any old vending machines. They did, and they were only $20 each.”
It was Kamin-Lyndgaard who had the mechanical skills to turn the old news racks into a box containing the antidotes. The coin device was removed, a couple of shelves were added, it was sanded, repainted and then wrapped with information about the Save a Life Station.
The two now have installed two stations, one at East Side Neighborhood Services, 1700 2nd St. NE and one at the Jordan Community Center on the North Side.
“We want these stations to be hassle-free, stigma-free and friction-free. No questions are asked,” Kamin-Lyndgaard said.
The idea isn’t that people using the community centers will have an overdose. The idea is that if someone you know or love might have an opioid problem, you can take one of these kits home and have it ready. It’s similar to people having EpiPens handy for allergy sufferers.
“It’s a sad fact that in 46% of opioid overdoses, there was a bystander nearby. If that person had a naloxone kit handy, it would save a life,” Kamin-Lyndgaard said.
The Save a Life Station has a supply of Narcan kits, and also of testing kits that can be used by opioid users or other drug users, such as those who buy Adderall on the street, to see if an opioid is present in the drug they plan to use.
A common myth, Kamin-Lyndgaard said, is that opioid overdoses occur in people on the fringe of society, the ones sleeping under bridges. “The fact is that 69% of these overdoses happen in a private residence.”
The two have been busy giving informational talks to various groups or people on the use of naloxone or Narcan to prevent a fatal overdose. That part of their program has been successful. What hasn’t been successful thus far is getting businesses or government buildings to install a Save a Life station.
It costs the two about $230 to take a newspaper rack and convert it. The two charge any potential user $600 to have the Save a Life Station installed. The station will be monitored, and Narcan kits and test strips will kept in supply.
The two obtain the kits from the Steve Rummler HOPE Network, a family foundation that mourns the loss of their son to an overdose by providing to others kits that might save lives. Getting the kits into the hands of those who could help has been a challenge.
“So we’re a little discouraged. We’ve got a lot work to do,” Kamin-Lyndgaard said. And now a new threat is gaining ground in the Twin Cities. Fentanyl is being laced with xylazine, an animal tranquilizer also known as “tranq.” The result is a potential overdose that can’t be treated by Narcan.
Barrett and Kamin-Lyndgaard can be contacted at their website, which was just created: https://naloxoneaccessnow.com. The Rummler HOPE Network can be contacted at https://steverummlerhopenetwork.org/.
Turn to page 11 in this Northeaster for an inspiring story about volunteer Paul Christensen, a member at First Lutheran Church in Columbia Heights.
Andrew Kamin-Lyndgaard and Jim Barrett with their Save a Life station at East Side Neighborhood Services. (Al Zdon)
What’s in a naloxone kit: Three vials of antidote, three syringes, directions. Opioid test strips are also in the stations. (Al Zdon)