New York City has debuted its first vending machine for drug overdose treatment Narcan, but for some reason, not everyone is on board with this progressive community offering. Cheddar's own Ashley Mastronardi explored this complex issue.



<div class="block">New York City has debuted its first vending machine for drug overdose treatment Narcan, but for some reason, not everyone is on board with this progressive community offering. Cheddar&#39;s own Ashley Mastronardi explored this complex issue. </div>

NYC Debuts First Vending Machine for Drug Overdose Treatment Narcan

Welcome back. Everyone who need to know. I'm Baker, Pacho. All right guys. New York City has debuted its first vending machine for the drug overdose treatment, Narcan but not everybody's on board with this progressive community offering our Ashley Masar explored the complex issue for us. Punch into your area code and make a selection and it will come down to you. This average looking vending machine doesn't dish out chips and soda. It's a one stop shop for Narcan, the substance that reverses overdoses in case you see somebody that's overdosed by mistake, you could come and help them because you got the, the machine was set up by the New York City Department of Health and the services for the underserved and everything in it is 100% free harm reduction activist, Darryl Phillips didn't have a hand in setting it up, but he says it's a life saving tool. A lot of times people are thinking that people are careless and that's how they end up dying. But I think a lot of it is just, you know, overall not having certain items or certain means to be able to protect yourself. The Narcan vending machine sits at the end of a quiet street in Brooklyn. In order to get a product, you have to punch in your zip code and then punch in the product code. But not everyone we spoke to agrees with the machine being here having something friendly. Like a vending machine makes people think that this is an everyday activity. And the reality is that drug use is very harmful. It makes people's lives appreciably worse. 2022 was a historic year for overdose in New York City with more than 3000 deaths and 110,000 nationwide. I think often these municipalities are reaching for an easy thing to do rather than the much harder problem of getting people into treatment and off of drugs consistently. Still people in the community say the controversial concessions are a welcome addition. They took away the programs for the kids, they took away a lot of stuff that used to be in this neighborhood. And I think that if they come back and build up this neighborhood and start putting things in this neighborhood that the people could actually use and benefit from that would be pretty cool. New York is not the only city to debut a Narcan vending machine. They've also been popping up in other states like Michigan and California. Ashley Masar chatter news.