OKLAHOMA CITY – State mental health officials are abruptly pulling the plug on a vending machine initiative designed to provide Oklahomans access to overdose-prevention medications and testing strips. The 25 vending machines offering free naloxone and fentanyl test strips will be removed from their locations by the end of the month, the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse said in a statement Friday. The agency said it began placing vending machines in May 2023, but has determined the program was not cost effective and did not deliver positive enough results.
“After reviewing the financial implications, data, and overall outcomes, it has become evident that the program has not proven to be cost-effective, nor has it consistently delivered the positive results we had hoped for,” said Allie Friesen, commissioner of the agency. The Mental Health Department reported that 47,604 naloxone kits were distributed through the vending machines in 2023. The agency shipped 148,886 naloxone kits and 108,306 fentanyl test strips through its mail-out program in the same year.
Last summer, the agency, which was under different leadership at the time, heralded its new initiative, which was supposed to place vending machines in “strategic zip code locations where overdose prevalence” was high. Oklahoma officials said it would be the largest such effort in the nation. A naloxone vending machine from the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Servic.