From a distance, it looks like a normal vending machine. But a closer look reveals that instead of stocking candy bars and bags of chips, its racks are filled with drug-test strips and the overdose-reversing drug naloxone.
The free public health vending machine will be unveiled Monday in Brooklyn by the city Health and Mental Hygiene Department — the first such machine in New York City.
The machine, at 1676 Broadway in Ocean Hill-Brownsville, is the city’s latest attempt to beat back a pandemic-fueled drug overdose epidemic that has killed thousands, devastated families and communities and contributed to a lower life expectancy.
“We’re in the midst of an overdose crisis,” city Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan told the Daily News. “In the city, every three hours, a New Yorker dies from an overdose.”
The machine is the first of four slated to come this year, according to the Health Department. The city-funded machine will be available for use 24/7, and all you have to do to access the supplies is punch in your New York City zip code.
In addition to fentanyl test strips and naloxone, which can reverse opioid overdoses, the machine will stock hygiene kits, maxi pads, Vitamin C, first aid kits, wound care kits, COVID-19 tests and supplies to smoke, snort and inject drugs more safely. It won’t include syringes.
The idea behind the vending machines as a tool to fight the crisis is that they’ll reduce barriers to getting supplies while normalizing harm reduction as an effective public health strategy, said Toni Smith, New York State director for the Drug Policy Alliance.
“The public health vending machines are really our attempt to mediate it and to meet people where they are, and do whatever it takes to get lifesaving tools into people’s hands, like naloxone and test [strips] and give people … things so that they can make the choice to stay alive in the wake of a really powerful and growing overdose and intersecting mental health crisis,” Vasan said.
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