ST. FRANCISVILLE - A teenager in West Feliciana Parish is taking the battle against opioid addiction into her own hands.

Leila Ramos, a 16-year-old senior at West Feliciana High School, is looking to make an impact in her community by making Narcan, an anti-opioid overdose drug, more readily available.

"The true goal of this person is one life saved is everything, one life saved is a success," Ramos said.

Ramos plans to attend LSU next semester as a pre-med student and created Hope Resuscitated to make a change. Her first stop on her journey is in front of the West Feliciana Library in St. Francisville, where residents can walk up and grab a box of Narcan.

"We really wanted to have locations and distribution areas where people could access the Narcan with no questions asked. Even having to go in and ask someone for Narcan can be intimidating and especially with the stigma surrounding Narcan and overdose in general," she said.

Her organization receives the boxes through Capital Area Human Resources, and she says since launching they have faced backlash from people concerned that having Narcan readily available would only encourage drug use.

"To me, that is kind of an exaggerated statement, because to need Narcan you are on the brink of death, they would not be able to administer to themselves the Narcan is a last resort option," she said.

The cause is close to Ramos personally. She has lost five loved ones to overdoses and feels if just one of them had Narcan, it could've meant the difference between life and death.

"if anyone was standing by my family members when they passed away and they had Narcan on them I would want them to use it, or the people that were there I would want them to have Narcan just in case they pass by. Someone's mother, someone's brothers, someone's dad so their life can be saved" she said.

Anti-drug advocate Tonja Myles said she stands behind Ramos.

"If she can do it, I think it's going to be a fire where other 16-year-olds, where other youth around the area would say you know what, I want to do something like this because it's not just about hope, but it is giving resources," Myles said.