Oviedo offers free Narcan at City Hall to fight overdoses

Oviedo put free Narcan in City Hall this week, giving residents another place to get the overdose-reversal medication in a county where officials are still trying to blunt the toll of opioid and drug poisoning deaths. The medication, also known as naloxone, is available in the lobby of Oviedo City Hall, 400 Alexandria Blvd., during regular business hours and at certain city council meetings.

The city’s move gives Seminole County residents another practical pickup point in the middle of a crisis that health officials say is still serious even as some numbers improve. Florida Department of Health data say drug poisoning has become the leading cause of injury death in Florida, and naloxone can reverse the fatal effects of an overdose. State surveillance materials also say broader naloxone distribution can help reduce fatal overdoses.

Oviedo’s effort grew out of regional coordination through the Council of Local Governments of Seminole County, known as CALNO, and city leaders said they moved ahead after seeing positive results elsewhere. The city cites a 50% drop in overdose deaths as evidence that wider access to Narcan is helping. In Seminole County, the response already includes free Narcan through Community Health in partnership with the Florida Department of Children & Families’ Overdose Prevention Program.

That county program has placed Narcan and Narcan distribution boxes at more than 20 locations across Seminole County and at community health outreach events, expanding access beyond a single office or clinic. Oviedo’s decision now folds City Hall into that network, giving residents in the eastern part of the county a local place to stop in and take home a medication that can save a life in minutes.

Deputy Mayor Natalie Teuchert said the city wanted to make life-saving medication easier to access and easier to talk about, especially because overdoses are still a subject many people avoid. Seminole County’s substance-use resources page frames that approach as part of prevention and healing, emphasizing stigma reduction and compassion alongside access to help. With City Hall now serving as a pickup site, Oviedo is treating overdose response less like a stigma and more like basic preparedness.