Santa Clara County will begin providing the opioid overdose-reversing medicine naloxone in all county library branches in an effort to make the treatment more widely available.
The county Board of Supervisors voted unanimously April 4 to make naloxone, commonly known as Narcan, available at all county libraries and to train library staff on how to administer Narcan to someone who has overdosed on an opioid like fentanyl.
Santa Clara County Librarian Jennifer Weeks said the county is also exploring partnerships with cities like San Jose and Mountain View that have their own library systems.
Narcan has been approved as a prescription drug since 2015 and is the standard treatment to reverse an opioid overdose by reversing or blocking an opioid’s effects on the brain.
“By increasing access to these kits, we can help prevent opioid-related deaths and ensure that our community has the resources it needs to stay safe and healthy,” said Supervisor Otto Lee, who called for making Narcan available at local libraries.
Other library systems across the country have made Narcan kits freely available to members of the public, including the San Francisco Public Library and the library systems in Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and Denver.
The Santa Clara County Library’s website can be found at https://sccld.org.
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