- The Weber County Sheriff's Office now offers free naloxone via a vending machine in its main lobby.
- Naloxone can reverse overdoses caused by opioids like fentanyl, the top cause of drug-related overdose deaths in Utah in 2023.
- Utah's drug-related overdose deaths in 2023 totaled 606 with fentanyl to blame in 47.9% of the cases.
OGDEN — As the number of fentanyl-related deaths spikes across Utah, the Weber County Sheriff's Office has installed a vending machine that dispenses free Naloxone, used to counter the effects of an opioid overdose.
The machine in the lobby of the sheriff's office at 1400 Depot Drive in Ogden resembles the machines that dispense potato chips, candy and other snacks in office break rooms. The Weber County Sheriff's Office version, though, isn't designed to counter late-afternoon hunger pangs. It's designed to save the lives of those who overdose on fentanyl, heroin, oxycodone and other opioids, a continuing problem in Utah.
The sheriff's office has provided free naloxone in its lobby since 2021, but the machine "removes the stigma of having to speak to the sheriff's office staff to gain access to this life-saving medication," said Chief Deputy Terance Lavely. Weber County is the first Utah county to use Naloxone-dispensing machines and they have been placed at five other sites, he said, including the Lantern House homeless shelter, the Ogden Police Department and Midtown Community Health Center, which serves people without health insurance.
Naloxone is the generic name for medicines like Narcan, supplied at the sheriff's office, that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. "If you or anyone in your home has access to opioids — whether prescription or otherwise — you should also have access to Narcan. Accidental overdoses can happen anywhere, and being prepared could save a life," reads a sheriff's office Facebook post from Monday on the new vending machine. The access code for the machine is 1234, and the Narcan is administered to those in need as a nasal spray.
A report released in January shows the drug overdose death rate in Utah through 2023 held steady since 2015, with fentanyl — involved in 47.9% of drug overdose deaths in 2023 — an increasing problem. Drug-related overdose deaths in Utah are particularly problematic in the health district covering Weber County and even more concentrated in downtown Ogden, according to Lavely.
"The sharp increase in the number of fentanyl-involved deaths outpaces reductions in deaths from prescription opioids. We will likely see an increase in the drug overdose death rate if this trend continues," Dr. Deirdre Amaro, Utah's chief medical examiner, said in a statement last January that accompanied the report's release.
Deaths caused by opioids like OxyContin, a prescription painkiller, were previously a focus of alarm, but they are on the decline, more than countered by the rise in deaths caused by fentanyl. The report attributed the increase largely to the introduction of illegal fentanyl to the United States, which a U.S. congressional report from August says comes chiefly from criminal groups in Mexico.
Utah registered 606 drug deaths in 2023, up from 585 in 2021, the previous high, and the biggest number since at least 2000, according to the report. Of the 606 drug deaths in 2023, fentanyl was behind 290 of them.
The drug overdose death rate in Utah between 2021 and 2023 was 16.9 deaths per 100,000 people, with the rate for several specific health districts in the state exceeding that:
- The rate in the southeast Utah district, made up of Carbon, Emery and Grand counties, totaled 28.1 deaths per 100,000 people.
- The rate in the TriCounty district, made up of Daggett, Duchesne and Uintah counties, totaled 26.8.
- The rate for the Weber-Morgan district, made up of Weber and Morgan counties, and the Salt Lake County district was the same, 23.5.
Because opioid abuse "is both predictable and preventable, having naloxone in every location where opioids are present isn't just a best practice. It is a realistic, life-saving measure," Lavely said.
