Naloxone to be handed out by nonprofit at Georgetown's Two Step Inn

GEORGETOWN, Texas - As the tents go up and the boots come on, William Perry is packing naloxone.

"Our fancy festival lanyard," said Perry holding his naloxone. "All of this stuff makes its way back into the community. All different communities because people are coming in all over the state to go to this festival."

Perry is the founder of the nonprofit This Must Be the Place.

He'll be at Georgetown's Two Step Inn to pass out Kloxxado.

"This is actually twice the strength of Narcan," said Perry.

He travels across the country with it. He chose to visit Texas after the state reported almost 5,000 fentanyl-related deaths last year.

Even in Williamson County, EMS said it's a growing problem. Just at the end of February, a Liberty Hill teen died from an overdose.

"That's just unacceptable," said Perry. "That is an unacceptable number. In fact, our organization has targeted something specifically to try to saturate with as much of this stuff as we possibly can. Our goal is to hand out 10,000 kits of this stuff."

Perry sees the people behind each of those numbers because he not only knew them, but almost was one.

"I now have seven years of sobriety," said Perry. "A lot of the people that I loved, a lot of the people that I grew up with, they didn't make it out. And so, I always wondered, you know, what if someone had been there to help them? To help me earlier in life?"

He may always ponder those questions, but for someone else at Two Step Inn, Perry might just be their answer.

"There was nothing I could do to bring those people back, but there is something we can do to prevent tragedy in other people's lives," said Perry.

At Perry's booth on Saturday and Sunday, he'll also have educational material about the fentanyl epidemic.

He'll be back in Central Texas for the Austin Psych Fest at the end of April.