With rocketing overdoses and deepening inequality , New York City is looking to install vending political machine with free syringes and naloxone , a drug that quickly reverses an opioid overdose
detail of the plan can be seen in aRequest for Proposals ( RFP)issued in December 2021 by the non - profit Fund for Public Health in New York on behalf of the city ’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene .
The idea is to place 10 vending machines in strategic locations throughout NYC that are “ disproportionately burdened ” by drug overdoses . The reflex vendors will freely parcel out sterile syringes , naloxone , and extra health supplies including menstrual supplies , safer sex kits , sharps containers , pregnancy tests , and water .
Like many parts of the US , NYC is still in the thick of anopioid epidemicgoing on since the late nineties . NYCreported2,062 overdose end in 2020 , the highest since coverage began in 2000 . That trope is significantly up for the previous class , whichrecorded1,497 overdose deaths . Opioids were involved in 85 percent of the deaths and , for the fourth class in a row , fentanyl – a very potent synthetic opioid – was the most vulgar substance involve in overdoses .
dig into this data reveals some clear vogue , which this latest project hop to address . The largest increases in overdose deaths were seen among men , dark people , occupier of high - impoverishment neighborhoods , and neighborhood that have a story of high overdose rate . The RPF explicitly cite that it attempt to reallocate resource and services in a way of life that “ savoir-faire barriers impose by geomorphologic racialism [ … ] and lily-white exclusive right . ”
“ It ’s about making the stuff , the health equipment and the health supplies accessible to the multitude who need it the most , where they ’re already at , on their agenda and on their timeline , and without the stigma or ignominy , ” said Sheila P. Vakharia , deputy director for inquiry and donnish engagement at the Drug Policy Alliance , harmonise tothe New York Times .
While this approaching may appear controversial to some , there ’s square evidence that ingest a more open stance on drug function can actually assist public health .
For example , researchshowsthat syringe service of process programs , distributing free , new , sterile acerate leaf for drug use , reduce overdose and infective disease rates , while not increase offence in the local domain . as , informing people and distributing naloxone hasbeen linked toa substantial decrease in opioid overdose death rates .
