NJ town to add Narcan emergency boxes in buildings

HILLSBOROUGH, N.J. (PIX11) – A fixture for first responders is, in one New Jersey town, becoming a fixture on the wall.

“The same way you see an AED box in most public buildings now, we’d like to have Narcan,” said Minda Maggio of the Hillsborough Millstone Municipal Alliance .

Narcan is now available in an emergency overdose kit inside the Hillsborough Township Municipal Building, located at 379 South Branch Road, next to the mayor’s office.

“This is the center of our town,” said Maggio, “and we will be looking at additional locations in town to be putting these boxes up.”

It comes through a new pilot program started by the Alliance, which is made up of various community members who volunteer.

“It’s really a wide array of people who care about our community,” said Maggio.

But unlike an AED, there doesn’t need to be an emergency for you to open up the box. The community is more than welcome to come take the Narcan at no cost, no questions asked, according to the township.

“It is also available in many of our local pharmacies,” said Maggio. “We want to get it out into peoples’ hands.”

In New Jersey, participating pharmacies offer Narcan to people 14 and older at no cost and without a prescription.

Hillsborough police said that since more civilians started carrying Narcan, it’s helped them on overdose calls.

“A lot of times when we get on scene, it’s already been deployed by somebody, a loved one or a family member,” said Hillsborough Township Police Capt. Scott McCarthy.

“In Hillsborough Township, we lead, we don’t follow,” said Mayor Robert Britting, who said their focus is on safety and prevention. “Hillsborough Township isn’t different than any other town, right? We all have issues, we all have to deal with the same crisis. But what we want to be is at the forefront of this, and this is our way of doing that.”

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