From their site: “Until now, we have focused on making sure that naloxone is available to people who are already using our services. We have increased the amount of naloxone kits we hand out year on year. This has made it possible for more people than ever to help someone who is having an overdose. We want to carry on with this, but we also want to provide more naloxone to communities. We want to bring naloxone to people, instead of waiting for them to come to us.”

A new project at University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine has demonstrated that one place medical schools can train students about saving lives from an opioid-related overdose is hospital emergency departments (EDs). A recent study found that EDs are particularly apt settings for overdose education and naloxone distribution (OEND), a harm-reduction strategy aimed at both teaching patients how to recognize and respond to opioid-related overdose and distributing naloxone to laypeople for use outside of health care settings.

As recreational drugs like cocaine are increasingly cut with fentanyl, a movement has sprung up to prevent deaths in nightclubs. Marie is one of the many harm reduction workers helping distribute testing strips in leisure spaces. Fentanyl testing strips as well as the opioid-reversal drug naloxone (commonly known as Narcan) are becoming the sine qua non of the party scene, distributed everywhere cultural denizens hang out: nightclubs, art galleries, downtown streetwear stores, even housewarming parties in Brooklyn.

Louise Vincent figures her group, the North Carolina Survivors Union, saves at least 1,690 lives a year. The harm-reduction and syringe service program in Greensboro, N.C., distributes the opioid overdose reversal medication naloxone to people who use drugs. Research suggests this approach is effective, since people who use drugs are most likely to witness an overdose and administer naloxone.