A retired Baltimore Beat Box now holds free naloxone instead of newspapers. Baltimore Street Medicine Collaborative, through Behavioral Health Leadership Institute (BHLI), repurposed the decommissioned box into a free naloxone and harm reduction station. The station went up at 401 E. Patapsco Avenue in front of People’s Care Pharmacy on Monday, August 31, International Overdose Awareness Day.
“Baltimore Beat has been a fantastic resource in the community and an ally in the harm reduction work and ecosystem here in Baltimore,” said Dr. Meredith Kerr, DNP, CRNP, FNP-C, nurse practitioner with Baltimore Street Medicine Collaborative through BHLI.
“Some of the community came by to see what we were doing within the first couple minutes of putting it up,” Kerr said. “They took four or five boxes right then and there.”
Baltimore Beat operates more than 53 Beat Boxes across the city, built in partnership with Open Works, a Baltimore makerspace. Each box carries the newsroom’s free bimonthly print edition, 20,000 copies per run. Many also serve as community exchange stations stocked with toiletries, naloxone, and winter clothing.
Overdose deaths remain one of Baltimore’s most urgent public health problems. With the repurposed Beat Box, residents have access to life-saving overdose reversal medication without a clinic visit, an ID, or a wait.
“The geography of Southwest Baltimore can sometimes cut off neighborhoods from services, and sometimes Brooklyn can feel like one of those places that people forget is part of the city,” Kerr said. “So it’s great to be able to have not just our street medicine presence there but something that’s there when we’re not that people can access 24/7, that is free, that is there whether or not the pharmacy is open, that’s available to people.”
“Our boxes have always carried more than newspapers. Information keeps people alive and so does naloxone. Watching one of our retired boxes go back out into a neighborhood in this form is the whole reason we built them the way we did,” said Lisa Snowden, publisher and CEO of Baltimore Beat.
Baltimore Beat plans to expand the Beat Box network in 2026, adding boxes in neighborhoods with the least access to free local news.
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About Baltimore Beat
Baltimore Beat is an independent, nonprofit newsroom providing free, community-focused journalism for the people of Baltimore. Through reporting, storytelling, and civic engagement, the Beat works to uplift local voices and strengthen the city’s information ecosystem. The newsroom publishes a bimonthly print edition alongside its digital platforms and maintains a network of more than 53 Beat Boxes across the city. Learn more at baltimorebeat.com.
Media Contact: Lisa Snowden, publisher and CEO, Baltimore Beat, lisa@baltimorebeat.com