Needle Vending Machines May Come To Harlem, City Plans Show

HARLEM, NY — Vending machines that give out clean needles and overdose-reversing medication could soon appear in Harlem, according to plans recently released by the city.

In December, a nonprofit working with the city's Health Department released a request for proposals, seeking organizations to run a number of vending machines that will be installed in high-need neighborhoods around the city.

Those neighborhoods include East Harlem and the 10027, 10030 and 10039 ZIP codes of Central Harlem, according to the request for proposals (RFP), which was released Dec. 8 and reported on this week by the New York Post.

In addition to clean syringes, the machines would distribute naloxone — the drug often known by its brand name, Narcan, which can reverse opioid overdoses in progress — as well as other "wellness supplies."

They will be up and running later this year, a Health Department spokesperson told Patch.

News of the vending machines comes on the heels of the East Harlem safe-injection site that the city opened on Nov. 30. Staff at the site, along with a second location in Washington Heights, had already reversed 43 overdoses by mid-December, according to the city.

The efforts come amid an alarming increase in overdose deaths. More than 2,000 people died from overdoses in the city in 2020 — the highest number since recording began in 2000 — and nearly 600 people died during the first quarter of 2021.

East Harlem has been among the city's hardest-hit neighborhoods by drug use, suffering one of the highest overdose rates of any area between 2020 and 2021, according to city data.

"In 2019, Latinx New Yorkers had the highest rate of overdose deaths for the second year in a row and the rate of overdose death among very high poverty neighborhoods is more than twice the rate among low and medium poverty neighborhoods," the RFP reads.

Distributing clean syringes to promote safe drug use is not a new concept in the city: in fact, the East Harlem clinic that now houses the injection site had previously functioned as a needle exchange for years.

The vending machines, too, have been tried in Europe, Canada and Australia, as well as in Cincinnati and Las Vegas.

It will cost the city $730,000 to install the unspecified number of vending machines, and operators will be chosen by Jan. 31.

"Public Health Vending Machines are an emerging strategy to support low-barrier access to lifesaving supplies and are already in use in several U.S. jurisdictions and in progress in over 15 additional jurisdictions," Health Department spokesperson Victoria Merlino said in a statement. "These vending machines promote public health by offering an additional access point for safe and sanitary supplies that New Yorkers need."

Some neighbors rose up against the injection site when it opened last fall, arguing that it would lead to more open drug use and serve a client base that largely comes to Harlem from other neighborhoods. The city counters that the clinic will actually help neighbors by preventing overdoses from happening on nearby streets — in addition to saving lives.

Related coverage: Supervised Injection Site Opens In Harlem In Historic Move