SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio just received its very first Narcan vending machine at Rise Recovery.
Their goal is to provide the community of San Antonio free access to Narcan in order to save lives.
The dispenser is a creation by Anthony Deblano who takes old vending machines and converts them into Narcan distributors, like the one he just created for Rise Recovery.
“I’ve lost a lot…a lot of friends…and I've got two kids…when we were kids doing Xanax it was a different ball game, these days there’s fentanyl on the streets," Deblano said. "You can die like that.”
So Deblano created Conscience Conduit in Dallas, providing support to people dealing with drug use and as of September he and a few others started converting old vending machines to bring change.
“I want people to understand that just because you support Narcan it doesn’t mean you support drug use…you support a second…third chance," he said.
A chance the community of San Antonio now has for the first time with free Narcan available to anyone at Rise Recovery.
“It will absolutely be a matter of life and death for someone, and you never know," CEO of Rise Recovery Evita Morin said.
Morin knows seconds count when saving a life. Narcan has to be administered within minutes of an overdose to save someone.
"If you have a loved, a loved one who is passed out, or maybe your teens friend who is passed out…it doesn’t create any negative impact but it might save their life if they took something," Morin said.
Why not save a life and give someone a second chance.
“This is about making sure the people have the medication no matter what," Deblano said.