How Vending Machines Can Save Lives in Substance Abuse Crisis

metroweekly.com:

“We lost over 500 people in D.C. last year to overdoses, both people who are intentionally using opioids and people whose drugs are laced with opioids who don’t know it,” says Alexandra Bradley, the outreach and community engagement manager for the D.C.-based harm reduction organization HIPS, Inc., which serves communities impacted by sex work and substance abuse.“We’ve seen fentanyl show up in cocaine and methamphetamine and other drugs, which are stimulants,” notes Bradley. “So the folks using those drugs are not used to having opioids in their system.

Even a little bit of a strong drug like fentanyl could easily do a lot of damage and put someone at risk. You’re also speed-balling at that point, because you’re using different kinds of drugs at the same time, which increases your risk of overdose.

That’s what we saw at the beginning of this year.”Eager to prevent deaths and serious injuries, and to promote safer behaviors when it comes to sex or drug use, officials with the DC Health, the Department of Behavioral Health, and D.C.

Fire & Emergency Medical Services Department — borrowing a model that has been successfully deployed in cities like Milwaukee, Las Vegas, and New York City — proposed a new pilot program involving the use of “harm reduction” vending machines. (A similar vending machine initiative is currently being carried out in nearby Anne Arundel County, Maryland, which is home to Annapolis.)The vending machines, which require a code to operate, contain naloxone, also known as Narcan, a nasal spray that can reverse an overdose from opioids.