Cook County will use vending machines to increase Narcan access
As opioid deaths remain elevated in the Chicago area, Cook County is announcing a new measure to try to curb overdoses.
Cook County Health is installing vending machines to dispense naloxone for free at some county facilities in Chicago and the suburbs. The drug, commonly known as Narcan, is an opioid overdose reversal drug.
The vending machines will be placed in the 10 county courthouses and three entry points at the Cook County Jail. Machines have already been installed at Stroger Hospital, Rothstein CORE Center and Provident Hospital.
The machines are being paid for with money from the federal American Rescue Plan Act.
Dr. LaMar Hasbrouck, chief operating officer of the Cook County Department of Public Health, said the program does not condone drug use but gives people second chances.
“This initiative is an important pillar in harm reduction strategy,” Hasbrouck said at a news conference Wednesday at Stroger Hospital. “It’s about allowing them to live another day, allowing them another day to continue their journey toward recovery.”
Cook County recorded 1,821 opioid-related deaths in 2023. That figure was down slightly from its record of 2,001 in 2022. Opioid-related deaths totaled 1,295 in 2019 and jumped sharply at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Opioid deaths disproportionately affect the county's Black and Brown communities.
In recent years, efforts to increase access to naloxone have included offering it at Chicago Public Libraries in high-risk neighborhoods, and on the West Side, some plastic boxes that used to contain newspapers now distribute the drug.
John Werning, executive director at the Chicago Recovery Alliance, praised the vending machine approach.
“Vending machines can be a fabulous resource for the community and can bring a lot of high-need items to communities where we can’t exist all the time,” he said. “They can be a really fantastic resource.”
Dr. Thomas Nutter, chief behavioral health officer at Cook County Health, said 375 naloxone kits have been distributed in the past month through existing vending machines. That’s impactful, he said, as each kit has two doses meaning a potential 750 lives saved.
Nutter said he hopes vending machines will be installed in more locations.
“We’re very liberal in trying to get as much Narcan into the world as possible,” he said. “The lower the barrier and the wider the access, the more that we can saturate the community with naloxone, in particular, the communities that have been hardest hit.”