Could a Narcan vending machine help stem opioid deaths among young people?

A free vending machine that dispenses the overdose-reversal drug naloxone was unveiled this week at Santa Clara University, the first such campus resource in the San Francisco Bay Area, school officials said.

The machine at the school's Benson Memorial Center will dispense two-packs of Narcan, a nasal spray for delivering naloxone, with instructions on how to recognize signs of an overdose, how to administer the spray and to call 911, university officials said in a statement. A QR code on the machine also has a link to a California Public Health Department training video on Narcan.

School officials across the U.S. have been attempting to stem a surge in overdose deaths, especially among teenagers, by increasing the availability of naloxone, which can reverse an opioid overdose in minutes.

Students were the driving force behind the movement at Santa Clara University to apply the principles of harm reduction, which aims to prevent drug-related deaths by providing treatment and services instead of promoting abstinence-only policies, said assistant public health professor Jamie Chang, who helped spearhead the campaign for the machine.

"With the free vending machine that is centralized in the student commons area, we want to de-stigmatize this medication and give students the tools and education they need to keep our community safer," Chang said. "Now, students absolutely recognize that there are life-saving tools like naloxone available, and that they can be part of the solution to the opioid crisis."