Santa Clara County is now mailing Narcan to anyone over age 12 who requests it. Marianne Favro reports.
Santa Clara County is now mailing Narcan to anyone over age 12 who requests it.
The move by the county to make the overdose-reversing drug more widely available comes as deaths linked to fentanyl climb in California.
"I do believe it will be easier to get," said Geralyn Vasquez, whose 24-year-old son died from fentanyl poisoning in 2020.
Since her son's death, Vasquez has fought to protect others from fentanyl poisoning. She is glad the county is now offering Narcan by mail.
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"It's really modeled after the federal government sending out COVID tests to people in the community," Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez said. "Our goal is to make it easy for people to access."
Anjanette DeVito, a nurse manager with Santa Clara County Addiction Medicine, said the hope is people who do not feel comfortable getting Narcan at a clinic will be more comfortable requesting it by mail.
"They don't have to interact with us and we don't ask about drug use or their family," DeVito said. "It opens more doors to have naloxone available to them."
DeVito said since the mail order program started in December, 250 people have already requested Narcan, which means more people in the community will now have it on hand to use on someone overdosing on fentanyl.
"Hopefully we can save some lives in that process," Vasquez said.
