NYC Health Dept. vending machine offers free Narcan, drug-test strips

[Kamaji]

NYC Health Dept. vending machine offers free Narcan, drug-test strips

By Jack Morphet and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon
June 5, 2023

Big Apple health officials unveiled a new street vending machine Monday that swaps out candy bars and potato chips for free doses of Narcan and drug-testing strips.

Designed to combat the surge in overdoses in the five boroughs, the new machine in Brownsville, Brooklyn, is the first of four set to pop up in some of the city’s most drug-infested neighborhoods in the coming months, officials said.

“Every three hours, we’re losing a New Yorker [to drugs]. And it looks like 2022 is on track to be our highest year ever in overdoses,” Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Ashwin Vasan said at a press conference next to the machine, which is parked outside a nonprofit aimed at offering housing and other support for those in need.

“We have a rising tide of fentanyl, and now we have other substances entering our drug supply, which is really putting us behind the eight ball,” Vasan said.

He specifically noted the increasing presence of Xylazine, a veterinary drug known as “Tranq” or the “zombie drug” that can leave users in a catatonic state and with conditions that eat their flesh off.

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Source:  https://nypost.com/2023/06/05/nyc-vending-machine-offers-free-narcan-drug-test-strips/

[Kamaji]

[bigheadfred]

Narkan doesn't work on Xylazine.

[PeteS in CA]

For some reason, I doubt a person unconscious from a fentanyl OD or his/her doper-friends would have the presence of mind to find and use the Narcan. This seems like a thought-free throw-money-at-the-problem empty gesture.

[Kamaji]

For some reason, I doubt a person unconscious from a fentanyl OD or his/her doper-friends would have the presence of mind to find and use the Narcan. This seems like a thought-free throw-money-at-the-problem empty gesture.

It's there for everyone else to grab the narcan when they see a person unconscious from opiod use - apparently, we're all supposed to know how to visually diagnose opiod overdoses in strangers, including telling the difference from plain old garden-variety drunkenness - and then go grab the narcan and administer it.  In fact, there have been ad campaigns on the subways encouraging everyone to carry some narcan with them, just in case there's a stranger in need.

[Fishrrman]

The vending machine will be broken into, the contents stolen and then sold off black-market...