Opioid Overdose Reversal Drug Boxes Installed At Arlington Libraries

ARLINGTON, VA — Arlington Public Library is making Naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal medication, available at each of the county’s seven library branches.

Opioid overdose emergency boxes have been installed inside each branch. The emergency boxes have one box of naloxone, which includes two doses of the medication to reverse opioid overdose. Additionally, there are instructions in both English and Spanish inside the boxes.

The boxes are located near the automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, where the public can access them at most library branches. At the Aurora Hills and Glencarlyn branches, though, the emergency boxes will be in places where only employees can access them.

The naloxone nasal spray, also known by its brand name Narcan, is a medication that can reverse an overdose from opioids, including prescription painkillers, heroin, and fentanyl, safely and effectively. It's available over the counter without a prescription.

“Getting Narcan into Arlington libraries means that lifesaving resources are more readily available in the event that someone is experiencing an overdose,” Deborah Warren, executive director of the Arlington County Community Services Board and deputy director of the Department of Human Services, said in a statement Thursday. “We’ve seen the benefits of having AEDs and first aid kits in our public spaces. This adds an important, potentially lifesaving tool to those same spaces.”

Since January 2020, there have been 206 opioid overdoses in Arlington, 60 of them fatal, according to the Arlington County Police Department. Arlington saw 20 fatal overdoses in 2020 and another 28 in 2021. As of June 3, there have been 12 in 2022.

Signs of a drug overdose include: slow or shallow breathing; cold or clammy skin; blue or gray skin, fingertips, or lips; deep gurgling or rattling snore; sleeping and cannot be woken up; unresponsive to stimuli like an earlobe pinch or sternum rub.

Arlington County launched its Arlington Addiction Recovery Initiative in 2017 in response to opioid abuse in the county.