New York City\u2019s first \u201cpublic health\u201d vending machine, stocked with free drug paraphernalia and unveiled on a corner of Brooklyn\u2019s drug-infested Brownsville neighborhood on Monday, had already been cleaned out of almost all its contents 24 hours later, the New York Post reported on Tuesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well-stocked with \u201csafer smoking\u201d kits containing free crack pipes, \u201csafer sniffing\u201d kits, fentanyl testing strips, overdose-reversing Narcan nasal sprays, nicotine gum and condoms on Monday morning, the big blue box contained just one overdose-reversal kit and a pair of testing strips the next day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The city plans to install three more of the street corner smoke shops, each costing $11,000, in neighborhoods suffering the most from the opioid overdose crisis. The contents will remain free to anyone who enters their zip code on the keypad, and nonprofit Services for the Underserved will maintain them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are in the midst of an overdose crisis in our city, which is taking a fellow New Yorker from us every three hours and is a major cause of falling life expectancy in NYC,\u201d New York Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan said in a statement announcing the vending machine rollout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe will continue to fight to keep our neighbors and loved ones alive with care, compassion and action,\u201d he declared, emphasizing the dispensing of \u201clife-saving tools like [overdose reverser] Naloxone\u201d over the distribution of \u201csafer use\u201d kits. There are reportedly plans to stock syringes in the machines as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perry Perlmutter, CEO of Services for the Underserved, described the initiative as \u201ca game-changer for this part of East Brooklyn,\u201d noting that the machines\u2019 contents would \u201cprevent overdoses, infections, and other health risks associated with substance use\u201d in addition to \u201cessential items that can improve the quality of life of all New Yorkers, regardless of their income, insurance or housing status.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Overdoses in New York City are at an all-time high, with 2022 on track to break the 2021 record of 2,668 overdose deaths. In the first half of 2022 alone, 1,370 overdose deaths were recorded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like New York\u2019s controversial \u201csafe\u201d drug injection sites, whose number is set to expand from two to five by 2025, the paraphernalia vending machines appear to be inspired by the drug-infested Canadian city of Vancouver, which has been selling crack pipes – and some actual narcotics – out of vending machines for nearly a decade in the name of \u201charm reduction.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While New York appears to be the first US city to offer a full range of drug paraphernalia for free out of vending machines, other cities like Los Angeles have also begun handing out \u201csmoking kits\u201d in addition to Narcan and testing strips and the needle exchanges that have existed for decades<\/p>\n\n\n\n