We connect harm reduction programs, mutual aid networks, health departments, and non-profits to naloxone they can actually afford.
Before we were Remedy Alliance/For The People, we were the Opioid Safety and Naloxone Network (OSNN) Buyers Club.
The Opioid Safety and Naloxone Network was formed in 2008 following the Summit on Opioid Overdose organized by Temple University School of Law. Its mission was to address naloxone access in the United States. OSNN established an info-sharing and networking listserv that today has several thousand members. The lion's share of OSNN's coordination and administration has been done by Alice Bell from Prevention Point Pittsburgh.
In 2012, OSNN members — Chicago Recovery Alliance executive director Dan Bigg and Dr. Nabarun Dasgupta— negotiated with a major naloxone manufacturer to expand affordable to harm reduction programs. The Buyers Club was created and grew over the years to distribute over 4 million doses of naloxone between 2017 and 2021.
Building a network
Today, we work with nearly 500 programs who distribute generic injectable naloxone directly to people who use drugs in 42 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
We work with a range of different programs who are distributing naloxone: from large harm reduction programs like the Chicago Recovery Alliance and Sonoran Prevention Works in Arizona who maximize the impact of their funding by purchasing the least expensive form of naloxone, to government/institutional purchasers who act as good stewards of public funds to purchase low-cost naloxone from a non-profit to supply the harm reduction programs in their state, to un-funded or under-resourced harm reduction programs and mutual aid groups who struggle to get the supplies they need for their communities.
We keep us safe
Some programs are located in rural and urban areas, some are covering one city or region, others are providing distribution services for their whole state.
What unites us is we all believe people who use drugs are the primary witness to overdoses and must be the focus of naloxone distribution efforts.
Photo source is unknown.
Activists have been fighting for accessible naloxone since 1996
Learn the history of naloxonePhoto of Dan, Eliza and Maya from the 2016 National Harm Reduction Conference at the Buyers Club workshop