OGDEN — As the number of deaths from fentanyl spikes across Utah, the Weber County Sheriff’s Office has installed a vending machine that dispenses free Naloxone, used to counter the effects of an opioid overdose.
The machine in the lobby of the sheriff’s office at 1400 Depot Drive in Ogden resembles the machines that dispense potato chips, candy and other snacks in office break rooms. The Weber County Sheriff’s Office version, though, isn’t designed to counter late-afternoon hunger pangs. It’s designed to save the lives of those who overdose on fentanyl, heroin, oxycodone and other opioids, a continuing problem in Utah.
Naloxone is the generic name for medicines like Narcan, supplied at the sheriff’s office, that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. “If you or anyone in your home has access to opioids — whether prescription or otherwise — you should also have access to Narcan. Accidental overdoses can happen anywhere, and being prepared could save a life,” reads a sheriff’s office Facebook post from Monday on the new vending machine. The access code for the machine is 1234, and the Narcan is administered to those in need as a nasal spray.
The sheriff’s office was closed Tuesday for Veterans Day, and no one from the county was immediately available for comment. But a report released in January shows the drug overdose death rate in Utah through 2023 held steady since 2015, with fentanyl — involved in 47.9% of drug overdose deaths in 2023 — an increasing problem. Drug-related overdose deaths in Utah are particularly problematic in the health district covering Weber County.
“The sharp increase in the number of fentanyl-involved deaths outpaces reductions in deaths from prescription opioids. We will likely see an increase in the drug overdose death rate if this trend continues,” Dr. Deirdre Amaro, Utah’s chief medical examiner, said in a statement last January that accompanied the report’s release.
Deaths caused by opioids like OxyContin, a prescription painkiller, were previously a focus of alarm, but they are on the decline, more than countered by the rise in deaths caused by fentanyl. The report attributed the increase largely do the introduction of illegal fentanyl to the United States, which a U.S. congressional report from August says comes chiefly from criminal groups in Mexico.
Utah registered 606 drug deaths in 2023, up from 585 in 2021, the previous high, and the biggest number since at least 2000, according to the report. Of the 606 drug deaths in 2023, fentanyl was behind 290 of them.
The drug overdose death rate in Utah between 2021 and 2023 was 16.9 deaths per 100,000 people, with the rate for several specific health districts in the state exceeding that:
- The rate in the southeast Utah district, made up of Carbon, Emery and Grand counties, totaled 28.1 deaths per 100,000 people.
- The rate in the TriCounty district, made up of Daggett, Duchesne and Uintah counties, totaled 26.8.
- The rate for the Weber-Morgan district, made up of Weber and Morgan counties, and the Salt Lake County district was the same, 23.5.
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