“One of his partners in that effort was Trevor Henderson, the former director of Metro Public Health’s Overdose Response Program who is now working as a substance use response consultant with the University of Tennessee’s SMART Initiative — or, Substance Misuse and Addiction Resource for Tennessee. A year or so ago, Henderson said he stumbled upon an initiative from Gibson Gives, the charitable arm of Gibson guitars. The program — Training and Empowering Musicians to Prevent Overdose (TEMPO) — had received a grant to cover the cost of ONEbox kits, but they weren’t sure where to distribute them. Through his work with Metro health and police, Henderson knew there had long been an overdose problem on Broadway, a perfect fit for the TEMPO program’s mission. Working together with Hotz, Henderson said they were able to install around 70 kits around town last year. But that effort, while moderately successful, had slowed down. That is, until recently.
A cop, a nightlife director and a guitar company get naloxone into bars
A few weeks ago, Benton McDonough, who serves as the executive director of Nashville’s beer board and leads Metro’s Office of Nightlife, started reaching out to local officials about increasing overdose prevention efforts downtown. Metro Councilmember Erin Evans, who chairs the council’s Public Health and Safety Committee, connected McDonough with Hotz and Henderson. They coordinated with Gibson Gives to acquire dozens more ONEbox kits and, leaning on McDonough’s established relationships with downtown bars, they quickly got numerous establishments on board. Soon, Hotz was on Lower Broadway with a cordless drill, installing the kits on honky tonk walls. As of this writing he’s placed at least one kit each in 13 downtown bars and is set to visit others that have requested their own. The boxes Hotz is installing contain two doses of Kloxxado, an alternate brand of naloxone that comes with twice the dose of Narcan. While the initial focus has been on venues and bars downtown, Hotz said he will try to get a ONEbox to anyone who wants one. ”
Read the full article from the Nashville Banner here.