By Jaymie Baxley
Naloxone is a widely available medication that can bring someone back from the brink of death in minutes, but cost, stigma and other barriers have kept the opioid overdose antidote out of reach for many of the North Carolinians who need it most.
In Wilson County, a new initiative aims to break down those barriers by giving residents free, 24/7 access to naloxone — no questions asked.
Repurposed newspaper dispensers filled with naloxone nasal spray were installed last month at five sites in the rural, eastern North Carolina county. These kiosks also contain information about recovery services for substance use disorder and testing strips that can be used to check illicit drugs for deadly substances such as fentanyl.
They were purchased with funds from a $2.9 million federal grant awarded last year to the Wilson County Substance Prevention Coalition, a nonprofit that has been at the forefront of local efforts to reduce the human toll of the opioid epidemic. More than 220 lives were lost to overdose in Wilson County from 2013 to 2023, according to data from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
Jeff Hill, executive director of the coalition, said the goal of the kiosks is to “make sure that any person who needs a box of naloxone in Wilson County can access it at no charge.”
“Yes, over-the-counter Narcan is available, and yes, I can buy it at Walmart,” said Hill, referring to the brand name of naloxone. “But if I’m a person in early recovery who’s trying to help somebody, or I’m a person in active use or a family member of a person in active use with limited income, I might not have $50 to spend on that box of Narcan.”
Strategic placement
One of the kiosks was installed at BHG Wilson Professional Services, a center that provides medication-assisted treatment to residents recovering from opioid use disorder.
Amber Leclercq, program director for the center, said the kiosk was “strategically placed” on a side of the building that faces a row of tall bushes.
“With the vending machine being right there, it’s easy to access but also shaded enough to where other vehicles driving down the road don’t see,” she said. “If people are not yet ready to seek treatment or if they’re scared, this gives them the opportunity to discreetly obtain tools and information that might be life-changing. They’re taking the first step.”
The four other Wilson County kiosks are at county-owned facilities, including the local library, Health Department and Department of Social Services, and at Recovery Concepts Community Center, a coalition-run space that hosts meetings for addiction support groups.
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Each kiosk was initially loaded with 25 boxes of naloxone and 100 testing strips. Hill said interest in the stations had surpassed the coalition’s expectations, with a couple of them needing to be restocked just days after they were installed on March 24.
“Our machine was one of the ones that got cleaned out pretty quickly,” said Lori Walston, director of communications for the Wilson County Department of Social Services. “We have a lot of foot traffic because of our agency and what we do. Also, the neighborhood where we sit is one of the neighborhoods of greater need in the community.”
Alisa Milliken, the department’s grants and wellness coordinator, said the agency also serves a number of residents experiencing homelessness — a population with an especially high risk of overdose.
“We have a lot of homeless people coming in on a daily basis needing food and things like that, so we expect that the Narcan will keep going pretty quickly, probably every time at our location,” she said.
Hill said the kiosks will be regularly replenished using funds from Wilson County’s share of a landmark court settlement with the pharmaceutical companies that allegedly fueled the national opioid epidemic. The county is set to receive a total of $7.8 million in annual payments through 2038.
Community education
Esteban Arizpe, a community paramedic with Wilson County EMS, said arming citizens with naloxone reduces strain on first responders.
“When someone calls 911 for an overdose and they’re actually administering the naloxone prior to EMS’ arrival, it greatly increases the chance of that person surviving while freeing up our units for other calls,” he said.
The kiosks not only provide easy access to naloxone, they also provide instructions on how to use it. Each station is equipped with a video player that gives a step-by-step tutorial for administering the drug.
“One thing that we strive for is to better ourselves and better our community by providing resources and giving them the education to know the signs and symptoms of an overdose, and how to treat it,” Arizpe said. “This is something that is helping us to meet that goal.”
Arizpe added that he’s seen a “great increase in knowledge” around naloxone and other tools such as syringe exchanges and testing strips — collectively known as harm reduction methods — among residents in recent years.
The increased awareness has coincided with a drop in emergency department visits. Admissions of overdose patients to the ER at Wilson Medical Center fell 36 percent from 2022 to 2025, according to DHHS data.
Multi-county effort
The grant used to buy and stock the kiosks came from the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program, a multi-year initiative managed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration.
In addition to paying for the five kiosks in Wilson County, the money allowed the coalition to buy four stations to place in nearby Edgecombe, Nash, Warren and Wayne counties. The total cost for the project was $10,000.
The kiosk for Wayne County was presented to the local Health Department. Margaret Brake, the department’s director, said she will be meeting with community partners this month to determine where it should be placed.
“We like the idea that people will have 24-hour access to naloxone,” she said. “Particularly if it’s someone that’s homeless or struggling—they can get what they need when they need it. We’ve even talked about putting some canned goods in there, just to have some additional things the community can use.”
Mark Winstead, a pastor at Restoration Purpose Church in the small Nash County town of Bailey, is also trying to find a good site for his community’s kiosk. He described Bailey, which had a population of fewer than 600 people at the 2020 U.S. Census, as a place where “everybody knows everybody.”
“There’s still a stigma there,” Winstead said. “But if I can put something somewhere, and maybe it’s a well-known commissioner’s son who’s battling addiction and he can discreetly come get naloxone, then that’s what it’s all about.”
“You can’t treat somebody that’s dead,” he added. “We gotta be able to save their life first — and then we can work on the rest of it.”
This article first appeared on North Carolina Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.