Texas launches interactive map to help residents find overdose medication sites
The Texas Department of State Health Services launched an online interactive map this week that pinpoints where residents can acquire life-saving Naloxone, a medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose, as part of the state’s “One Pill Kills” campaign to prevent fentanyl and other poisonings.
The new online map, maintained by DSHS’s Texas Overdose Data to Action program, includes a search bar where visitors can type in an address or zip code to see nearby Naloxone locations. Information displayed for each location includes the type of site — such as community health clinics, recovery support services, vending machines — their hours, phone number, website, and more.
According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, when Naloxone is administered, it attaches to opioid receptors in the brain and blocks the effects of opioids, allowing the victim’s breathing to be safely restored.
Jordan Baker, a program manager for TODA who worked with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission as well as Naloxone Texas to create the interactive map, said that a landscape analysis revealed access to Naloxone as a primary issue across the state.
“We did interviews with local harm reduction organizations and prevention agencies, a lot of universities and really just subject matter experts and community members and those lived experiences to identify regional challenges,” Baker told StateScoop in a Friday interview. “But across the board, we heard that access and awareness of where the Naloxone was a big issue.”
In September 2023, TODA received $3.9 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which provides grant funding to 90 health departments across the country to reduce drug overdoses and the impact of related harms using data surveillance on drug poisonings. The grant program runs through 2028, with required reapplication each year for continued funding.
TODA recently submitted its application for fiscal 2025 and 2026, according to a spokesperson for DSHS.
Baker said the new online tool also highlights resource deserts — areas where residents have limited access to essential resources such as food, healthcare, green spaces, or other necessities, often due to factors like historical disinvestment or systemic inequalities — in West Texas, where there are very few Naloxone distribution sites.
“It’s definitely something that, as a result of the map, has been brought to TODA’s attention, and we’re working with Naloxone Texas to try to get some more resources in that area,” Baker said. “We’re also working with some of the community paramedicine teams about how we can bring stronger prevention support to the more rural and large land masses.”
A 2024 DSHS report showed a nearly 20% decrease in fentanyl-related poisoning deaths, with at least 430 fewer Texans dying from fentanyl-related poisoning compared with the previous year. The decrease comes after five straight years of increases, which saw fentanyl-related poisoning deaths in Texas rise over 600% from 2019 to 2023.
Baker added that TODA collects data on both fatal and non-fatal drug poisonings using data from hospitals, EMS runs, toxicology reports and death investigation reports to better understand circumstantial information around fatal drug poisonings.
She said the program plans to create a non-fatal drug poisoning dashboard in the next few months, which will display overdose trends by drug type, age group, and other demographic information.
“All of our partners want data,” Baker said. “Our purpose is to utilize that data to inform their local prevention strategies, and then kind of roll all that up to our overall state strategy of supporting the reduction of drug poisonings.”
