Marshalltown plans to install a free public Narcan dispenser next week, a box that represents a huge step in the city’s ongoing opioid awareness campaign. The city and its Youth and Shelter Services branch hope the free public access to the overdose-reversing drug will complement its existing community policing initiatives.
David Hicks, the YSS Director of Community Engagement for Marshall County, says it’s only the eighth free Narcan box in the state. Hicks says, “It just fits in well with the approach we’re taking to this unique type of community policing, but also this intervention for opioid overdose.”
Hicks says the box will be placed outside the YSS building. He says it helps everybody in the city, from its police force to its hospitals to its taxpayers.
“You can’t pick up everybody and put them in jail or put them in the hospital, that costs time and money,” Hicks says, “but if we can empower people to maybe help themselves, that’s money well spent and a positive outcome we want.”
YSS has embedded two social workers within Marshalltown’s police force and has brought on a dedicated addiction counselor.
(By Grant Winterer, Iowa Public Radio)