A northern Vermont health center is preparing to house the state’s very first naloxone vending machine, which aims to make the opioid overdose antidote more accessible as overdose deaths continue to rise.
The Johnson Health Center expects to have the machine set up outside its front door sometime in June, said Caroline Butler, the center’s founding member and nurse practitioner.
The machine – which could hold around 300 naloxone nasal sprays – will come from the University of Vermont Center on Rural Addiction, as part of a project to distribute five naloxone vending machines in northern New England.
These single-dose naloxone sprays, popularly known as the brand Narcan, will be available around the clock, for free and without the need for a prescription. The medication is designed to revive people who overdose on opioids, including fentanyl, heroin and prescription painkillers.
“This will save somebody, hopefully multiple people,” Butler said. “I really think, too, it’s gonna be a big move to decrease the stigma around having it.”
Each naloxone spray will also come with information on where people can seek help for substance use disorder.
Last year, 239 Vermonters died of opioid overdoses, according to the latest state health department data. It was the third straight year Vermont set such a new record.
Among those who fatally overdosed in 2022, Butler said, was a Johnson resident. She said the death spurred the health center and a local recovery organization, Jenna’s Promise, to seek out a naloxone vending machine for their community.
They wanted a way for potential users to obtain the overdose antidote without having to go through a distributing person. The organizations’ past experience showed that the naloxone they were giving out went faster when people could just take them anonymously.
Butler credited the UVM Center on Rural Addiction for responding to their search for a naloxone vending machine. “They were very excited about it,” she said, “and ended up giving us the grant for it.”
She said the custom-made machine costs just under $11,000.
Some places in the United States began installing naloxone vending machines in 2022, including Philadelphia, which ran a pilot program funded by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
UVM’s Center on Rural Addiction, which receives funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has not yet named the recipients of its four other vending machines. It also accepted applications from qualifying rural communities in New Hampshire, Maine and northern New York.
The Center on Rural Addiction expects to distribute all the machines within this year, after they’re custom-built for each host location, said Dr. Kelly Peck, its assistant director of clinical operations.
The center has also committed to stocking the machines with naloxone twice after they are delivered, he said. Afterward, the recipient organizations will be responsible for filling the machines.
The vending machine in Johnson will be jointly maintained by the health center and Jenna’s Promise, Butler said.
The state government would also like to set up naloxone vending machines, according to an advisory committee’s initial recommendations on how Vermont should use millions in dollars from opioid lawsuit settlements.
Right now, the Vermont Department of Health has no concrete plans yet for setting up the machines, said department spokesperson Ben Truman. He said the agency will continue to use a data-driven approach to develop those plans, including reducing the stigma associated with obtaining naloxone.
In the meantime, people can continue getting free naloxone from community sites around the state, such as substance use recovery centers and emergency response groups. More information on naloxone sources, as well as overdose prevention, treatment and recovery, is available on vthelplink.org.
A Vermont health department standing order allows people in the state to get naloxone through pharmacists without a prescription.