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External NewsHarm Reduction

MATTERS’ First Harm Reduction Vending Machine is LIVE

By October 17, 2023June 10th, 2025No Comments

Thank you to our partners at the Alliance for Positive Health and the Saranac Lake Police Department for supporting MATTERS’ first harm reduction vending machine!

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Free Narcan, no questions asked:

Vending machine in SLPD lobby dispenses free Narcan, testing strips

By Adirondack Daily Enterprise

SARANAC LAKE — There’s a new vending machine in the Saranac Lake police station lobby where the public can get free Narcan, fentanyl testing strips and xylazine testing strips.

SLPD Chief Darin Perrotte said the supplies in the machine are free, available with no questions asked and might make the crucial seconds in an opioid overdose count. He hopes these lifesaving items will be a more “proactive” approach to the opioid epidemic. He also said everyone should keep naloxone in their home, just like a fire extinguisher. Naloxone is the generic term for the medicine commonly known as Narcan.

“Putting this in the hands of the community can save lives,” Perrotte said.

Image of a MATTERS harm reduction vending machine filled with naloxone (Narcan), xylazine test strips, and fentanyl test strips. There will be 15 deployed across New York State by the end of 2023.
Image of the contents of a vending machine. Machine contains boxes of Narcan and fentanyl and xylazine test strips.

The department got this machine at its station on the corner of Main Street and Lake Street through its partnership with the Alliance for Positive Health, a non-profit which services northeastern New York with offices in Plattsburgh. The machine itself comes from New York MATTERS (Medications for Addiction Treatment and Electronic Referrals), an opioid use disorder organization centered in Buffalo.

MATTERS Chief Medical Officer Joshua Lynch said MATTERS is distributing 15 of these vending machines around the state and Saranac Lake’s is the first to go live.

“Having the first one in the North Country … an area that’s not totally rich with resources … is something that’s really important to us,” he said.

The police department already partners with APH for its sharps disposal box in the entryway and for the naloxone officers carry. Perrotte had worked with APH while a lieutenant in the Plattsburgh Police Department. He became the SLPD’s chief in February 2022 and started sourcing his officers’ naloxone through APH.

The Cost

APH Overdose Prevention Coordinator Krista Trombley said naloxone can cost $45 per box from a store. This makes it cost-prohibitive in a time when experts are pushing for it to be free and accessible as one of the most effective ways to treat an overdose.

She said the cost and stigma behind purchasing it can keep people from seeking help.

“Many people are reluctant to access harm reduction supplies because they have to go interact with someone,” Lynch said. “That adds a layer of stigma and anxiety for some, maybe an element of embarrassment.”

The money to make these doses free comes through grant and state funding through the state Office of Addiction Services and Supports. Lynch said there’s a possibility the machine will be restocked in the future using money from recent settlements with major pharmaceutical corporations responsible for producing and selling the drugs that fuel the opioid epidemic.

The settlements the state reached with these companies let the companies not admit to wrongdoing, but required hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to the state, bringing in over $1.6 billion to New York state.

The total cost to install the machine was $14,800 and the machine itself cost $10,000.

Trombley said APH is responsible for restocking the machine, which they plan to do regularly.

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