Big Apple officials on Monday unveiled a street vending machine that covers all the pieces with regards to catering to drug addicts, offering free useful accessories like crack pipes and lip balm – in addition to Narcan for an overdose.
The vending machine, one among 4 to be placed in the town’s most drug-infested neighborhoods, is exchanging more typical offerings akin to candy bars and potato chips for drug-related freebies to attempt to combat a surge in overdoses in five neighborhoods, the City’s Department of Health.
“We lose a New Yorker every three hours [to drugs]. It looks like 2022 will probably be our highest ever overdose yr,” Health and Mental Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan said at a press conference next to the primary machine parked near a non-profit organization dedicated to offering housing and other support for those in need.
“Now we have a rising tide of fentanyl, and now we have now other substances which might be entering our drug inventory, which really puts us behind the eight,” Vasan said.
Specifically, he noted the growing presence of xylazine, a veterinary drug often known as “Tranq” or “zombie drug”, which might put users right into a catatonic state and conditions that eat their flesh.
“We would like to equip these machines with these [test strips] too,” said Vasan.
![City Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan introduces a new drug vending machine.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012223999.jpg?w=1024)
The machine looks like a typical snack vending machine, but is as an alternative stacked in what health officials say is a possible life-saving tool.
Merchandise available includes the anti-overdose drug Naloxone, commonly often known as Narcan, drug test strips that detect fentanyl, and Safer Smoking kits complete with a heavy pipe, mouthpiece and lip balm that will be used to smoke crack cocaine and methamphetamine crystal.
Safer Sniffing kits and random items akin to condoms, tampons, nicotine gum and first aid kits are also available.
People do not have to pay for items; they simply enter their zip code to access.
While the primary machine doesn’t contain syringes, future ones may include them, Vasan said.
![Brooklyn's new drug vending machine features Narcan.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012224451.jpg?w=1024)
He said the machines, which cost $11,000, will probably be installed in areas most affected by drug overdoses.
“It’s a crucial arrow in our quiver,” Vasan said of the vending machines. “It is not a one-size-fits-all solution, but it surely’s a crucial tool that tells New Yorkers, ‘Hey, we’re going to provide you tools that save lives.’ “
Officials first announced early last yr that they were continuing the pilot program as drug overdoses skyrocketed in the town.
In line with Big Apple data, 2021 was a record yr for fatal overdoses in five municipalities, with 2,668 drug-related deaths.
![An overdose emergency kit seen in a vending machine in New York City](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012224044.jpg?w=1024)
![The first of four drug vending machines in the city.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012225890.jpg?w=722)
While the 2022 figures are yet to be fully worked out, health officials say the annual figure is predicted to eclipse the 2021 record. Statistics show there have been 1,370 fatal overdoses in the primary half of last yr alone.
About 80% of those overdoses involved fentanyl.
But now with the US Drug Enforcement Administration calling Tranq “the deadliest drug threat” within the US“Now we have latest xylazine test strips just like the fentanyl test strips [which] allow individuals who use drugs to discover if there’s Tranq in what they’re using, and may be added to vending machines, Vasan said.
![New drug vending machine in Brownsville.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012224194.jpg?w=890)
While drug vending machines will probably be latest to New York City, Vasan said they’ve already been installed elsewhere, including Philadelphia and Nevada within the US and Australia and Denmark in Europe.
“The reply to the opioid crisis is greater than that,” said the Commissioner. “More tools, more education, more harm reduction, more anti-stigma, more treatment.
“We’re facing an ever-growing crisis and we want to embrace it, and that is what we’re doing here today,” he said.