Customer Experience

Cincinnati harm reduction machine reverses 960 opioid overdoses

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December 8, 2022

A self-service vending machine filled with harm reduction supplies helped reduce Hamilton County, Ohio's opioid overdose deaths in 2021, according to research published by the Journal of American Pharmacists Association.

Harm reduction supplies included naloxone, a drug that can reverse an opioid overdose, in addition to bandages, tourniquets, sterile syringes and fentanyl test strips, according to a UC News report on the study.

Daniel Arendt, a doctor of Pharmacy at UC, began collecting data from the machine after it was installed outside at Caracole, an HIV/AIDS service organization.

Participants enrolled by calling Caracole and completing an anonymous survey, after which they received an access code, good for 90 days. Clients can reenroll every 90 days.

The code allows users to dispense two injection doses of naloxone, two naloxone nasal spray doses, a needle disposal container, an injection kit, a smoking kit, a safer sex kit, personal protective equipment, a box of bandages and a pregnancy test every seven days.

The machine dispensed 3,360 doses of naloxone and 10,155 fentanyl test strips in the first year to 911 people.

The machine became the largest harm reduction supplier in the county compared to in-person syringe service programs.

Arendt said naloxone from the machine has reversed an overdose 960 times.