The local nonprofits that brought North Texas its first Narcan vending machines are now taking the idea a step further by creating smaller, 3D-printed versions aimed at reaching more people.<\/p>\n
Peter Pursley says by the time he was born, his half-brother, Brian, was already battling substance abuse.<\/p>\n
“Throughout my entire life, he was very familiar with the drug scene and what he was doing and what he was using,” he said.<\/p>\n
Four years ago, his family got heartbreaking news: Brian had overdosed at a bus station.<\/p>\n
“When they got to him, he wasn’t conscious, he was well passed away, so that was a huge part of my life and my mom’s and so after he died, that really sprung us both into action,” he said.<\/p>\n
From handouts to vending machines<\/p>\n
At first, they started handing out Narcan in their community. When used properly, it can reverse an opioid overdose.<\/p>\n
Then, Pursley’s mother founded the nonprofit LIVEGY, and last fall, they partnered with the nonprofit Conscious Conduit to install large-scale Narcan vending machines across North Texas and later in more than 30 locations nationwide.<\/p>\n
“Schools, places like YMCAs, public places, libraries,” he said.<\/p>\n
Smaller machines for tighter spaces<\/p>\n
However, inside tighter spaces, their size is an issue, leading the team to create compact, 3D-printed dispensers that mount to walls. Each can hold about 75 individual units of Narcan.<\/p>\n
Each machine includes a QR code linking users to overdose education, Narcan training and addiction support\u2014something Pursley says is just as important as the medication itself.<\/p>\n
Band Crawl event launches rollout<\/p>\n
The official rollout will coincide with this weekend’s Band Crawl Against Fentanyl in Deep Ellum, which will blend live music with overdose-response training. A memorial wall will be available for people to bring photos of loved ones on Saturday.<\/p>\n
“You need to be able to identify overdose, know you’re safe to act and how to act,” Pursley said.<\/p>\n
Schools and youth programs involved<\/p>\n
The team is now working with three local school districts and several youth programs across Texas.<\/p>\n
In recent years, Pursley says the stigma surrounding this topic has started to fade.<\/p>\n
“I think people are realizing hey I don’t know what my kids are doing all the time, so I think that has spurred a lot of it,” Pursley said. “This isn’t a problem happening solely in the opioid community. This is a problem happening to people of all walks of life.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The local nonprofits that brought North Texas its first Narcan vending machines are now taking the idea a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[430,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-6087","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-north-texas","9":"tag-texas","10":"tag-texas-headlines","11":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}