A new vending machine outside of the Flagstaff Medical Center’s emergency department dispenses free opioid overdose-reversal drugs. It’s part of a growing trend nationwide.
The machine offers medications like NARCAN or Naloxone that can be life-saving during an overdose.
It’s the second such machine in Flagstaff after officials set one up in the lobby of the Coconino County Health and Human Services building earlier this year.
Candice Koenker is the County’s prevention program manager.
“It's just really the idea that when people are using drugs, that can be an inherently risky activity, and there are strategies that make it slightly safer. It doesn't mean it's completely safe. It just means it's not as harmful,” Koenker says.
Koenker says similar programs are becoming more common across the country and research shows such efforts can save lives while not encouraging drug use.
A report released this month shows 84 people in Coconino County died of opioid overdoses in 2021. That’s up from the past three years. More than half of those who died were Native American.
Nearly 2,000 people were confirmed to have died from opioid overdoses statewide last year.
