The Community Resource Council’s Addiction Outreach program is seeking a location in downtown Boothbay Harbor to install a vending machine for Narcan (Naloxone), a medicine that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose while it’s happening.  

According to the CDC, this includes overdoses from heroin, morphine, oxycodone, methadone, fentanyl, hydrocodone (vicodin), codeine and hydromorphone. The organization also said over 107,000 Americans died of a drug overdose in 2023, although this is the first year annual deaths have decreased since 2018. 

“It doesn't matter the profile of the community. (It) could be rich, poor, doesn't matter. Everybody has overdoses," said Dan Gardner, EMS chief of Boothbay Region Ambulance Service. 

While Narcan is often freely available at pharmacies or clinics in Maine, these facilities are not always accessible due to business hours or walkability, an issue the CRC aims to address. 

“What this (vending machine) would do is give lifesaving medication to anybody who wants to take it, 24/7, without hesitation, without stigma,” said Holly Stover, CRC’s Addiction Outreach Specialist.  

But how safe is it? According to the CDC, Narcan can be used for anyone from infants to older adults; it will not harm people who take it while not experiencing an overdose. 

Gardner feels the vending machines are “too new” for him to have an opinion, but he does believe the medication carries an unfair stigma. Beyond helping those struggling with addiction, he said Narcan is administered to people (often elderly) who accidentally take too much or mix their prescription medications. 

The CRC’s current obstacle is finding a space that will provide a temperature-controlled environment for the back of the machine to keep the medicine viable. The CRC is willing to pay for any environmental modifications. Anyone interested in hosting the machine is urged to contact Stover at (207) 350-7477.    

This machine is one of the latest donated by Tim Cheney of Walpole, who previously sponsored the installation of one at Miles Memorial Hospital in Damariscotta.  “(My goal was) to put it in a medical setting, so that people would either consciously or subconsciously start associating Narcan with a medical issue, as opposed to a criminal or moral issue,” he explained.  

Cheney is the co-founder and owner of Chooper’s Guide, a comprehensive online addiction resource, and founder of Maine’s Enso Recovery, the Overdose Warning Network, and Chooper’s Foundation. His work has earned him several accolades, including the Child Advocacy Award from then Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in 2006, a congressional award in 2009, and the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.  

He has also been in abstinence-based recovery since 1981 after battling with various forms of addiction during his adolescence and early adulthood. “I just believe in paying things forward.” 

Cheney plans to continue donating machines to other rural areas with sights set on Waldoboro and Penobscot Bay. From there, he hopes their presence will become normalized with more medical centers and communities adopting them to fight against the ongoing fatalities.  

“The bottom line is dead addicts don’t recover.”