Addressing the Inequitable Distribution of the Life-Saving Overdose Drug Naloxone: Could Vending Machines be an Answer?

Drug overdose is a nationwide epidemic that claimed the lives of over 100,000 people in the United States in the past year.   Opioids, either alone or in combination with other drugs or alcohol, were responsible for approximately 70 percent of these deaths. Many of those 70,000 people would be alive today if they had been administered the opioid antagonist naloxone and, where needed, other emergency care.