Naloxone Vending Machine Installed

HAVE A QUARTER? SAVE A LIFE –

Sept. 10, 2023 – Approximately 300 naloxone nasal sprays, designed to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose involving substances like fentanyl, heroin and prescription painkillers, will be available free to anyone any time of the day, any day of the week.

The vending machine sits outside the Johnson Health Center, which was nearly destroyed in the Flood of 2023. The medical team there now provides its services to those in recovery and the larger community at Jenna’s House.

The health center and Jenna’s Promise paid for the machine through a grant from the University of Vermont’s Center on Rural Addiction as part of a regional initiative to place five naloxone vending machines to different towns across New England.

After the vending machine was announced this spring, Caroline Butler, a nurse practitioner that heads the health center, stressed the importance of normalizing potentially life-saving overdose prevention drugs.

“When we put the defibrillators in malls and supermarkets and things like that, everybody was like, ‘Well, we’re not going to use that.’ Now, what’s the first thing you do if someone’s having a heart attack in public? You run for the defibrillator,” she said.