Groups call for safe-use site as opioid overdose deaths climb

Dr. Thomas Huggett, who works at the Lawndale Christian Health Center, opens a box for state Rep. La Shawn K. Ford as he places free bags of Narcan (naloxone) inside it at the intersection of West Jackson Boulevard and South Pulaski Road in the East Garfield Park neighborhood after a press conference several blocks away, where members of the West Side Heroin/Opioid Task Force promoted harm reduction services and Ford advocated for the passing of House Bill 2, which Ford said will allow the Illinois Department of Human Services and the City of Chicago to start overdose prevention sites on the West and South Sides, Friday, July 28, 2023. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)

They once were used to distribute news. Now, they’re saving lives.

On Chicago’s West Side, 20 of those plastic boxes — the kind where people might have picked up a free copy of a local weekly are now stocked with anti-overdose medicine.