2022 Impact Report

2022. Impact Report.

Addressing an epidemic of preventable overdose deaths

In 2021, the number of opioid overdose deaths in the United States surpassed 100,000. Every opioid overdose death is a preventable death and a policy failure. People most in need of medications and supplies that prevent overdose struggle to access it.

NEXT Distro was founded to ensure that people who use drugs have the supplies they need to keep themselves safe. NEXT Distro (NEXT) mails naloxone and harm reduction supplies to people who use drugs who cannot access supplies from an in-person syringe service program.*

NEXT staff prepare a naloxone kit

“This program has directly saved my client’s life. Narcan is expensive, and honestly hard to come by. This program provided a miracle medicine that brought my 26-year-old client back to life.”

“Your program resulted in a saved life tonight. Had your program not been able to provide Naloxone free of charge, not one person that was also present at the time of overdose would have called EMS ([my state] is not a Good Samaritan Law state) for fear of prosecution.”

*Syringe services programs (SSPs) are community-based prevention programs that can provide a range of services, including linkage to substance use disorder treatment; access to and disposal of sterile syringes and injection equipment; and vaccination, testing, and linkage to care and treatment for infectious diseases (CDC.gov)

Averting opioid overdose deaths

To date, NEXT has mailed more than 100,000 doses of naloxone to communities hardest hit by the opioid epidemic in the United States.

State Highlight

NEXT has received more overdose reversal reports from Tennessee than any other state. Since 2018, NEXT naloxone has been used to reverse 1,297 overdose events in the state of Tennessee. (From 2018 to 2021, there were 10,753 overdose deaths in Tennessee.) NEXT is not yet funded to operate in the state and is working on a collaboration with the Tennessee Department of Health.

Rapidly expanding capacity to meet needs

In 2021, U.S. drug overdose deaths hit the highest level on record. In 2022, NEXT experienced rapid growth in demand for its services. This demand required scaling up operations, including bringing onboard new staff and creating new partnerships with local harm reduction organizations and health departments.

Number of requests for NEXT naloxone

In 2022, NEXT hired three new staff to meet the growing demand for its services.

Building bridges of trust and collaboration

NEXT offers an online platform where people who use drugs can find support, solidarity, and the tools to fight against stigma. The security and privacy of people using the platform is paramount. This builds trust in a community that has been harmed by the very institutions meant to help people.

However, we believe in-person harm reduction services are best. We work closely with in-person syringe service programs and support linkages to help participants stay safe and connect to non-judgmental medical care. From 2018-2022:

34 syringe service programs were added as affiliate partners 46 states (and Puerto Rico) were reached with NEXT harm reduction kits

Affiliate partners

AR - Central Arkansas Harm Reduction Project

CA - SANE

CO - Harm Reduction Action Center

CT - Connecticut Harm Reduction Alliance

DE - Delaware Division of Public Health

FL - Florida Harm Reduction Collective

GA - Georgia Overdose Prevention

HI - Hawai'i Health & Harm Reduction Center

IA - Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition

ID - Idaho Harm Reduction Project

IL - Point2Point

IN - Indiana Recovery Alliance

KY - Kentucky Harm Reduction Coalition

LA - Trystereo

MD - Baltimore Harm Reduction Coalition

ME - Maine Access Points

MI - Grand Rapids Red Project

MN - Harm Reduction Sisters

MO - MO Network

MT - Open Aid Access

NC - North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition

ND - Grand Forks Health Department

NE - TracB

NJ - New Jersey Harm Reduction Coalition

OH - Harm Reduction Ohio

OK - Oklahoma Harm Reduction

OR - Project Red

PA - Prevention Point Pittsburgh

Philadelphia - SOL Collective

TX - Texas Harm Reduction Alliance

UT - Utah Naloxone

VA - Chris Atwood Foundation

WI - Bad River Harm Reduction

WV - Southern West Virginia Harm Reduction

“The best part about being a NEXT Distro affiliate is access to not only the ordering platform, but also access to data about who is ordering Narcan, where they are located, and why they need it. It has been eye opening for us and state Department of Health folks to see data that exposes the barriers and difficulties for folks.”

“Additionally, we’ve learned, to our shock, the number of people who have witnessed an overdose or who have experienced an overdose themselves. Seeing this in our data has been difficult and having a network of NEXT Distro affiliates to talk with and share has been helpful in dealing with the traumas the overdose crisis has inflicted on ourselves and our communities.”

Affiliate partner highlight: Florida Harm Reduction Collective

Since 2019, the Florida Harm Reduction Collective (FLHRC) has partnered with NEXT. FLHRC’s mission is to redefine public health by meeting Floridians who use drugs where they are at through syringe access, overdose prevention, and all other healthcare needs in between.

In Florida, naloxone is available for free from over 200 providers. But those in rural areas have transportation barriers. Others are fearful of being recognized when picking up naloxone or attending an overdose prevention training. NEXT’s secure, confidential platform offers these Floridians a way to access naloxone without stigma or additional burden.

2,300+

harm reduction kits mailed to Floridians in 2022

350+ overdose deaths prevented (reported overdose reversals) since 2019

Florida Harm Reduction Collective team at a conference (Source: Florida Harm Reduction Collective)

Replicating the mail-based harm reduction model to save more lives

Since 2018, demand for mail-based harm reduction services has grown exponentially. NEXT worked to expand operations to meet this need. But in August 2022, NEXT was forced to close enrollment in unfunded states due to insufficient funding for personnel, supplies, postage and space.

One way that NEXT navigates these capacity challenges is to disseminate its program model. In October 2022, NEXT presented “Meeting People Where We Aren't: Strengths, Challenges and Nuances of Mail-based Harm Reduction” – and distributed “Mail-based Distribution Explainer” handbooks – at the 13th National Harm Reduction Conference in Puerto Rico.

In 2022, the number of syringes requested outstripped the number that could be mailed with available funding

657,726

1,471,181

1,807,009

number of syringes mailed

29,129 136,430

2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

Countering misinformation during health crises

In 2022, there was an urgent need to tackle harmful and stigmatizing misinformation about COVID-19, monkeypox and fentanyl. NEXT created and distributed educational fact sheets in its harm reduction kits and at nextdistro.org/inhouse-resources. Fentanyl facts were provided at nextdistro.org/fentanylmisinformation.

In October 2022, NEXT presented its mail-based harm reduction service delivery model at the 13th National Harm Reduction Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

“The education provided with this easy-to-use website has [given] not only myself but many others in my community the ability to save lives.”