Writing for The Guardian, Chris McGreal details the work of Vine Grove, Kentucky police chief Kenneth Mattingly whose “heart-rending experience” personal experience compelled him to “put in place Kentucky’s first naloxone vending machine,” a decision that has since “won the support of the city’s mayor.” From The Guardian:
“Kenneth Mattingly’s daughter was twice brought to the brink of death by heroin and twice pulled back by paramedics carrying an antidote, naloxone. Then Mattingly responded to an opioid overdose call early last year at which a woman saved a friend’s life because she was carrying a [Narcan] spray…‘She was a recovering addict herself and she happened to have Narcan she had gotten from one of her treatment facilities,’ Mattingly said, ‘so she hit him with a dose and brought him around. We hit him with a couple more and basically saved his life….He would probably have died if she hadn’t had Narcan. I gave my police officers Narcan to carry on duty but it still takes them time to get there and people die in the meantime.’