This article originally appeared in the Kitsap Sun.
Kitsap Transit riders will soon have easy access to naloxone after the bus and ferry agency agreed to provide lower-barrier access to the overdose reversal medication at two of its transit hubs.
Under an agreement approved by the Kitsap County Commissioners on Aug. 25, two mounted naloxone cabinets will be installed at the Bremerton Transportation Center off Washington Avenue and at the Port Orchard Ferry Terminal on Sidney Street, according to county documents. It appears to be the first time the lifesaving medication, sold as Narcan, will be freely available at a Kitsap Transit property.
The exact installation date is still being determined. A spokesperson for Kitsap Transit did not return an email or voicemail seeking more specifics.
The Salish Behavioral Health Administrative Service Organization, a state-designated agency serving Kitsap, Jefferson and Clallam Counties, will provide the cabinet and supply of naloxone at no cost to Kitsap Transit. Salish has installed over three dozen naloxone cabinets resembling ADE or newspaper boxes throughout Kitsap.
Expanding naloxone is one way the officials have sought to reduce fatal overdoses, which have skyrocketed since the pandemic. Most deaths involve fentanyl, a highly potent synthetic opioid that is frequently a common adulterant of other illicit substances.
In Kitsap County, 60 people died of an opioid overdose in 2024, according to preliminary data from the Kitsap Public Health District. That was down from the 74 deaths a year earlier, but remains the second highest annual death toll dating back to 2016.
Conor Wilson is a WSU Murrow News Fellow who writes for Gig Harbor Now and the Kitsap Sun, which originally published this story on Aug. 28, 2025.
