Naloxone vending machines meant to reduce overdose deaths are popping up around Jackson County, with a new one placed in Raytown this week and more expected by year's end.
The new Bluebox vending machine is outside the Synergy One Lending mortgage company, near 63rd Street and Blue Ridge Boulevard. It’s free to use and stocked with Narcan, a brand name version of the opioid-overdose antidote naloxone, as well as fentanyl test strips, COVID tests, and other items.
It’s the third of its kind that Jackson County Public Health has installed, including one outside their main office, at 3651 NE Ralph Powell Road in Lee’s Summit, and another in a parking garage in downtown Lee’s Summit, at 200 SE Green St.
Rob Callus, the department’s community access coordinator, said the machines give people the option to avoid a potentially triggering or stigmatizing interaction with emergency or health services.
“If we can make it so no one has to go have one of those negative experiences to get the absolutely life-saving supplies or medicine that they need, then we’ve done something right,” Callus said. “We’ve made it easier for folks to get the care that they need.”
The Bluebox in the Lee’s Summit parking garage has dispensed more than 5,000 free public health items for the community since it was installed in March. That includes 769 Narcan boxes with 2 doses per package, 371 fentanyl test strip bags, 242 medication lock bags and 742 safe sex kits.
Callus said the machines don’t track who uses them, but they will ask for a ZIP code before dispensing items. If someone isn’t comfortable sharing that information, he said they can punch in the same number repeatedly and still get what they’re after.
Jackson County is encouraging anybody to use the machine. Even if people don’t need these items for personal use, it can be helpful to carry Narcan just in case, Callus said.
Wendy McDermott, the Synergy One Lending branch manager, said the business is already seeing different types of people stop by, including a pair of nursing students just minutes after the Bluebox was delivered.
Though the public health department has provided these products for McDermott to offer inside her business for a few years now, she said she’s glad they’ll now be available 24/7.
“These people are in need, and they're in our communities,” she said. “Sometimes, at 2 in the morning, somebody needs something. Now, they can just dispense it themselves.”
Seth Middleton, senior program manager for Jackson County Public Health, said they chose the locations of the machines based on health data from different ZIP codes, though those can change year to year.
The ZIP code 64063, for example, where one of the Lee’s Summit Blueboxes is, has one of the highest opioid-overdose fatality rates in the county and more than two times the rate as other ZIP codes in Lee’s Summit.
Middleton said the public health department is still looking to add three more vending machines around Jackson County before the end of the year.
“If you are a community partner looking to distribute something, please contact us and we'll get you a spot,” Middleton said.
