TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas —
An Austin man is taking it upon himself to get the overdose reversal medication Narcan in the hands of as many people as he can.
The number of people dying from overdose deaths has spiked since the pandemic, and overdose deaths have been declared a public health crisis in Travis County.
Daryl Rembert hopes Narcan will help save lives.
"It's just a community problem, you know, and I'm just doing my part," Rembert said.
Rembert said these overdose deaths have a big impact on the community.
"Everyone knows someone that has been affected by an overdose," Rembert said.
For him, teaching people how to intervene in a drug overdose situation is critical.
"My passion is to get the message out and let people know that there's an epidemic going on, a health problem in our community. And we have to be proactive," Rembert said.
It's a passion that stems from his past.
"I used to be an addict, and I've gone through the system ... But once I've gotten clean, instead of being part of the problem, you know, I become part of the solution," Rembert said.
That's why he wants to distribute the overdose reversal drug Narcan and make sure people know how to use it.
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He sets up in common spaces like libraries and coffee shops to engage with people he comes across.
"I'll have some Narcan on the table. And I'm, you know, I mean, I have my computer out just doing something and I just have a conversation," Rembert said.
That's how he met Taydem Ligon.
"He's doing great stuff for Austin," Ligon said.
She lost two cousins to fentanyl poisoning. So when she learned what Rembert was doing, she immediately connected with him and his mission.
"I basically had no idea that fentanyl was even an issue. And seeing it firsthand, like having that big firsthand experience, kind of like, blew my mind a little bit," Ligon said.
PHOTOS: Daryl Rembert distributes Narcan in Austin
She said she wishes she would have known about Narcan sooner.
"We can never say that it's not affecting us personally because anyone around you could be doing it at any time," Ligon said.
According to the Texas Health Fentanyl Trends Dashboard, Travis County has the most fentanyl deaths in the state.
Travis County Judge Andy Brown hopes to change that.
"We have, you know, a population of almost 1.4 million people here in Travis County. And our job is to protect the health and safety of people who live here," Brown said.
The latest data from the Travis County Medical Examiner shows there were 35 accidental drug deaths with fentanyl detected reported in 2020. That number more than tripled to 118 in 2021. It more than doubled in 2022 to 245.
"It's increasing in the number of people who die each year over the past few years," Brown said.
In 2023, Travis County spent nearly $175,000 distributing Narcan, supplying it to community-based organizations like Communities For Recovery, Texas Harm Reduction Alliance and others.
"It's important to work with those groups to make sure that they're getting them to the populations they serve and they know and they work with," Brown said.
Already this year, Travis County officials have spent almost $40,000 giving out over 1,700 doses of Narcan.
But Brown said a large number of people in the county don't interact with medics, police or health care workers who would normally have Narcan on hand, making Rembert's outreach an important public service.
"The way that we're going to save more lives with providing Narcan is by getting it into the hands of people who are in those coffee shops, that he knows that we don't know at Travis County, or that Austin Public Health doesn't," Brown said.
Rembert got his training to give out Narcan from the Texas Overdose Naloxone Initiative. He also works with Communities for Recovery.
"Hopefully, one day, you know, everybody will have it in their medicine cabinet because it's such a big problem right now," Rembert said.
If you're interested in getting training to administer or distribute Narcan, you can find more information online.