• by Les Luchter , September 25, 2024

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently reported an unexpected 10% drop in opioid overdoses from April 2023 to April 2024 -- a period that coincided with the first over-the-counter availability of naloxone, the fentanyl reversal drug.

Still, 101,168 Americans died from opioid/fentanyl overdoses in the U.S. over those 12 months. So on Sept. 26, the organizers of Save A Life Day hope to distribute 101,168 free naloxone doses via 600 events in 34 states.

That includes all 26 states east of the Mississippi -- which is significant because Save A Life Day is a bottom-up effort begun in 2020 by a small West Virginian harm reduction group called SOAR.

The first year’s effort covered two WV counties, last year’s encompassed all 13 Appalachian states, and for next year, organizers expect fully national representation.

Hundreds of local organizers working with SOAR include other harm reduction teams, mutual aid groups, health departments, recovery homes and student groups.

The recent CDC numbers “mean that collectively, something is working. We can’t let up,” Caroline Wilson, SOAR’s Save A Life Day coordinator, said in a press release.

This year’s Save A Life Day includes the theme “Naloxone everywhere,” with nonprofit health insurer CareSource and other local foundations providing free naloxone pickup boxes to 60 of the event organizers. They’re designed to be placed outdoors for 24/7 accessibility at such locations as churches, clinics, libraries, colleges, recovery homes, gas stations, fire departments, groceries, parks, and local dollar stores.

Save a Life Day also has a number of major sponsors, including Emergent BioSolutions, marketer of opioid naloxone brand Narcan; Padagis, which markets a generic naloxone spray; and the Drug Intervention Institute, supplier of OneBox emergency naloxone kits.  

This year’s 600 events double the number in 2023.