Cook County will use vending machines to increase access to Narcan

As opioid deaths remain high in the Chicago area, Cook County announces a new measure 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 medication.

The machines will be located in the 10 county courthouses and three access points in the Cook County Jail. Machines have already been installed at Stroger Hospital, Rothstein CORE Center and Provident Hospital.

The machines are 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 a second chance.

“This initiative is an important pillar in the harm reduction strategy,” Hasbrouck said at a press conference at Stroger Hospital on Wednesday. ‘What matters is that they can live another day. They will be given another day to continue their journey to recovery.”

Cook County recorded 1,821 opioid-related deaths in 2023. That figure was slightly lower than the record of 2,001 in 2022. Opioid-related deaths totaled 1,295 in 2019 and rose sharply at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Opioid deaths disproportionately impact the county’s Black and brown communities.

In recent years, efforts have included increasing access to naloxone Chicago Public Libraries in high-risk neighborhoods and on the West Side some plastic boxes that now contained newspapers distribute the drug.

John Werning, executive director of the Chicago Recovery Alliance, praised the vending machine’s approach.

“Vending machines can be a fantastic resource for the community and can bring a lot of much-needed items to communities where we can’t always make a living,” he said. “They can be a fantastic resource.”

Dr. Thomas Nutter, Chief Behavioral Health Officer at Cook County Health, said 375 naloxone kits were distributed through existing vending machines in the past month. That has a big impact, he said, because each kit contains two doses, meaning potentially 750 lives could be saved.

Nutter said he hopes to see vending machines installed at more locations in the future.

“We are 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 we can saturate the community with naloxone, especially the communities most affected.”