Naloxone now available in U of A AED cabinets

Naloxone is now available in automated external defibrillator, or AED, cabinets across the University of Arizona’s main campus in Tucson. The work was made possible by the U of A chapter of Team Awareness Combating Overdose, or TACO, a national student-led volunteer group that provides scientifically backed community drug education and harm reduction resources.

Naloxone, also known by the trade name Narcan™, is a highly effective and safe drug that can rapidly reverse an overdose, which means restoring breathing and consciousness. More than five people a day die from overdose in Arizona, and an increasing percentage of recreational drugs and fake pills are contaminated with fentanyl, an exceptionally potent synthetic opioid. 

The U of A chapter of TACO is led by club president Nicholas Ward, an undergraduate student at the U of A College of Science, and advisor Bridget Murphy, DBH, an assistant research professor at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and a member of the Comprehensive Center for Pain & Addiction and the Arizona Center for Rural Health. They say that having naloxone available is increasingly important to protect our campus and local communities.

AED cabinets stocked with naloxone have stickers to notify people of the resource. Naloxone and AED cabinet locations can be found using the U of A campus map. Community members can support TACO's efforts by monitoring AED cabinets to confirm they are stocked with naloxone. If they are empty, please notify Risk Management at RMS-Contact@arizona.edu.

The program has been fully implemented in Tucson and is expanding to other U of A locations, including the College of Medicine – Phoenix. 

TACO students worked with several university and local groups to accomplish their goal of making naloxone kits more accessible on campus. Those groups included Risk Management Services, the Office of Public Safety, the Office of General Counsel, Campus Health, University Emergency Medical Services, the Center for Transformational Interprofessional Healthcare, and the Pima County Health Department.