Narcan vending machines? They're coming to Pierce County, and there's good reason for it
Sep. 14—OPINION AND COMMENTARY — Editorials and other Opinion content offer perspectives on issues important to our community and are independent from the work of our newsroom reporters.
The Tacoma Needle Exchange always has been cutting edge. In fact, the nonprofit — which traces its origins back nearly 35 years to the late Dave Purchase, who first set up a television tray and folding chair downtown and started handing out clean needles to people battling intravenous-drug addiction — has often operated on the edge.
When Purchase first began distributing fresh needles in 1988 as the HIV and AIDS epidemic started to peak, he was doing so illegally and everyone knew it, including then Tacoma Police Chief Ray Fjetland. To give the upstart program a chance, Fjetland instructed his officers to suspend enforcement of drug paraphernalia laws. The operation proved successful, becoming the first legally sanctioned and publicly funded needle exchange in the country.
More recently, when a need to serve the suburban and rural parts of Pierce County emerged, Tacoma Needle Exchange dispatched a van to make regular deliveries of clean needles and other supplies, direct to drug users' homes. As Daniel Beekman of the Seattle Times reported earlier this year, the exchange recently started distributing drug smoking supplies and pipes, in response to a growing number of overdoses related to the smoking of drugs like fentanyl and methamphetamine.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/narcan-vending-machines-they-re-coming-to-pierce-county-and-there-s-good-reason-for-it/ar-AA11PHDi
