Narcan now available free to anyone outside the Sellersburg Fire Department

SELLERSBURG, Ind. (WDRB) -- With an increase in fatal and non-fatal overdoses, the Sellersburg Fire Department is trying a new tactic to help save lives.

Narcan, a nasal spray used to counteract the effects of a drug overdose, is now available outside the fire department for anyone, no questions asked.

"It's just a growing problem, and we just want to help," said Karen Tweedy, deputy chief at the Sellersburg Fire Department.

Tweedy said the program is through Overdose Lifeline, Inc.

The company sent the fire department 50 individually wrapped, single-dose kits of Narcan to be put in a box outside the fire station. Less than 10 Narcan kits are stored in the box at a time, and the fire department will keep track of how many are taken each month.

"I would like to expect none would come up missing, which meant maybe no one needed this kind of help," Tweedy said. "I just hope that it works the way we're intending it to work."

Sellersburg Police Chief William Whelan said the police department has been responding to at least one or two overdose calls each week lately. He said officers sometimes have had to administer Narcan to the same person on multiple occasions.

Box outside the Sellersburg Fire Department filled with Narcan for public, Narcan kit

"Right now, I don't see an end in sight," Whelan said.

Whelan said he has mixed feelings about the accessibility of Narcan in the box outside the fire department.

"If you make it that readily available to everyone, I feel some of these people could start feeling maybe a little invincible, and there's a good possibility the amount of overdoses we're seeing already could go up," he said.

"I hope I’m wrong."

Whelan said, ultimately, everyone's goal to save lives is the same.

"If we can save one person in this community, then I can look in the mirror and be OK with who's looking back at me," Tweedy said.

Clark County Health Officer Dr. Eric Yazel applauded the program. He stopped by the fire department on East Utica Street on Friday afternoon to see the box for himself on the side of the building.

"It's one of our goals to get as much community Narcan out there," Yazel said. "Every overdose is preventable if they get Narcan soon enough, and access is a big thing."

He also said overdose cases in the county have increased over the past year.

Sellersburg Fire Department now offering free Narcan to public

"Our overdose deaths and overdoses in general were down about 40%," Yazel said. "When COVID hit — just from various stresses and economic hardship and things like that — it went right back to where it was a few years ago.

"Even in 2021, as we're working our way out of COVID, our overdoses are still much higher than our baseline over the last few years. And so programs like this are important."

Yazel said Narcan is safe and easy to administer. His hope is that people will eventually turn to recovery.