A new vending machine that offers free health and wellness supplies — such as naloxone (Narcan) to prevent opioid overdoses, smoker’s quitting kits, and safer drug use kits — has arrived in New York City.
The city’s health department unveiled New York City’s first public health vending machine Monday as a tool to reduce stigma and barriers around public health and to prevent more deaths caused by drug overdoses.
The first vending machine went into operation June 5 at 1676 Broadway in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood in Brooklyn, just outside of a supportive housing facility less than 10 blocks from Highland Park and the Bushwick-Aberdeen St. subway station. The vending machine will be in operation 24 hours a day.
The vending machine is currently supplied with: Fentanyl test strips, Naloxone Kits, safer smoking and sniffing kits with pipes, safer injection kits, hygiene kits with toiletries, menstrual kits, Vitamin C, first aid kits, wound care kits, and COVID-19 test kits.
New York City residents can use the vending machine by entering their zip code and the code associated with the product, which will be listed below the product in the machine, that they wish to have.
The vending machine is run by Services for the UnderServed, a New York-based nonprofit that supports people living with disabilities and people facing homelessness and poverty. The nonprofit also oversees the facility where the vending machine was placed.
Rebecca Linn-Walton, chief strategy officer at Services for the UnderServed, told amNewYork Metro that the vending machine is not meant to promote drug use, but to address an existing crisis.
“The big question people often has is, is this going to increase drug use? and I would immediately say, no. What this does is recognize how much drug use there is already going on,” Linn-Walton said. “It helps people safely use until they can get into services.”
The public health vending machines meet a goal that was outlined in the…
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