CHICAGO — City agencies are eyeing expansion of a pilot program that distributes Narcan through vending machines as early results show the free supplies are being taken by people who need them most.
The five vending machines, turned on in November, are stocked with hygiene kits, drug testing strips, menstrual products, socks, underwear and Narcan, an overdose-reversing medication that anyone can administer. The supplies are intended to reduce harm for people struggling with opioid addiction; Narcan has been credited with saving lives.
Since mid-January, the machines have dispensed 328 Narcan boxes, most frequently at Harold Washington Library (189), the Red Line 95th Street station (153) and Uptown Library (110), said Anna Dolezal, Chicago Department of Public Health spokesperson.
Almost 2,250 items were dispensed in the first three and a half months across the five machines, which are also at the Garfield Community Service Center and Roseland Community Triage Center.
The vending machines require people to complete a short survey to get anything that isn’t Narcan. The survey results showed 47 percent of people using it reported being unhoused, living with someone else or staying in a shelter.
Of the 526 people who answered the question on the survey, 15 percent said they’ve experienced an overdose and 44 percent said they’ve witnessed one. They range in age from 16-88.
Dr. Miao Jenny Hua, a health department medical director, said the initial batch of data is a “promising sign” that vending machines can provide a “successful targeted intervention” with people who are most at risk and hardest to reach.
“It’s putting resources around people clearly in need of harm reduction,” Hua said. “It’s also a signal more needs to be done to make these materials available.”
Denise Barreto, the CTA’s chief equity and engagement officer, said the agency is energized by the results.
“CTA is aggressively looking to expand on the pilot we started with the Chicago Department of Public Health,” Barreto said in a statement. “We know there are hot spots on Blue, Green and Pink lines.”
The pilot comes as harm reduction advocates work to normalize carrying Narcan and destigmatize drug users, while the health department distributes thousands of boxes to providers and public libraries in a bid to slow down record-setting overdose deaths in Cook County. The opioid epidemic, fueled by the proliferation of fentanyl in the drug supply, has taken an toll on the West Side in particular.
More than 120 people have died of overdoses on the CTA since 2020, according to city data analyzed by Katie Prout of the Reader.
That includes David Haennicke, whose death led his mother, Sheila Haennicke, to write to CTA officials for years and testify at a November board meeting with a plea to make Narcan readily accessible across the transit system — whether through more vending machines or her larger goal of putting boxes on trains, buses and platforms.
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Haennicke said reporting by Block Club Chicago and the Reader has drawn greater attention to the issue.
“Three hundred twenty-eight boxes may seem small, but it’s significant: People are using it,” said Haennicke, a member of the West Side Heroin/Opioid Task Force. “These machines are a powerful symbol that we care about people who are struggling. It’s a start, and it gives me hope we can build a long-term partnership with CTA.”
Erik McIntosh, a nurse practitioner with Rush University Medical Center who wrote an op-ed in the Sun-Times after seeing someone overdose on the Blue Line, said he’d like to see the CTA better track overdoses on its system, use some of its advertising space to educate people on how to use Narcan and consider equipping private security and staff with it.
The 95th Street vending machine — which is located near an entrance to the Red Line, away from the platform, and requires a PIN — can’t quite provide a rapid response to overdoses on transit, McIntosh said.
But McIntosh credited the machines as a welcoming option for people who may be wary of going to city libraries, church groups, shelters or nonprofits for supplies.
“It’s a good intervention, and it’s certainty better than nothing,” McIntosh said. “But to just have one vending machine at the Red Line, in an area where the majority of overdoses aren’t occurring, to me it’s not enough.”
Hua said she’s open to adding more wall-mounted boxes for Narcan and expanding access with any city agency “willing to engage us in it.”
It’s part of a two-pronged strategy for targeted outreach using more data and to “saturate the community” with Narcan, Hua said.
Narcan is now available throughout Midway and O’Hare airports, according to a news release from the Chicago Department of Aviation.
Haennicke is thankful the CTA is willing to work with her.
“We have to embrace that. There’s a power to compromise,” she said. “There are more Narcan boxes out in the community today.”
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