Recent research in California suggests non-White people who use drugs are less likely than White people who use drugs to receive naloxone, carry naloxone, or get refills after naloxone use.
In January 2020 the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department implemented a naloxone-on-release program in which all inmates being released from the Los Angeles County Jail system (average nightly population 13,232) are exposed to a video training on overdose recognition and response, and are able to take as many doses of naloxone as they wish from a no-cost vending machine at the point of release. Between January 2020 and June 2023, 217,163 individuals were released and 126,820 doses of naloxone were distributed (average 3020 doses/month).
The primary aim of the program is to increase naloxone access among individuals being released from incarceration, a group at particularly high risk of opioid-related overdose death. However, naloxone-on-release may also help improve access to naloxone among non-White people who use drugs, given that the LA jail system, like most in the US, disproportionately holds non-Whites (87% of the jail population is non-White, compared to 30% of the county population). In this paper, we describe initial findings from vending machine data and cross-sectional surveys with 478 individuals conducted immediately after release, with an emphasis on uptake of naloxone by non-White people who use drugs and/or have witnessed overdose in the past.