EXCLUSIVE: Syringe vending machine installed at SF apartment complex for veterans

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — A “Hurt Discount Merchandising Machine” because it’s referred to as, has been put in within the foyer of the Edwin M. Lee Residences in San Francisco. It is an reasonably priced housing neighborhood in Mission Bay the place many army veterans stay. The merchandising machines will quickly dispense free sterile syringes.

“Within the foyer of a posh? The place there’s households and kids? That’s not the correct place to place that,” mentioned Amanda Knight who lives there. Knight is a veteran. She and her husband don’t assist the set up of a merchandising machine like this.

The machine right here will quickly be stocked with free objects and accessed with a code. These objects embrace hygiene and first assist kits, condoms, and never solely sterile syringes however a disposal spot for used syringes.

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“I do not need children taking a look at these items. They’re too younger they do not want to have a look at this,” mentioned John Knight.

These with San Francisco’s VA Well being Care System say 15 of those merchandising machines will probably be put in in veteran’s amenities throughout Northern California. They will be stocked within the coming months. Not solely in San Francisco, however Santa Rosa and Oakland as nicely.

“That is about constructing a neighborhood of security. These are hurt discount machines they make issues extra secure and so what we’re doing is decreasing threat for infections that are very expensive. They actually influence folks their complete life once they get these infections and they’re preventable,” mentioned Tessa Rife-Pennington of San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Heart.

Narcan is not going to be supplied in these machines because the veterans well being administration requires over-the-counter merchandise to be issued to veterans as prescription. Those that run house advanced say Narcan is at all times on web site behind the counter.

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Knight, who says she has had tense moments with some who could have been on medication, believes the main target right here is misguided.

“The issue isn’t getting the syringe, the issue is the drug behavior. In case you get them off the medication, they will not want the syringe,” mentioned Knight.

However these operating this system say research present that not solely will clear and free needles scale back somebody’s threat of getting HIV, Hepatitis C, and different viruses, it’ll additionally result in extra advantages.

“The proof reveals us that offering clear needles doesn’t result in elevated drug use, it results in lowered infections and really partaking folks in therapy,” mentioned Rife-Pennington.

The Knights, whereas towards the merchandising machine, simply hope that if it does keep, it may be put in a location away from kids.

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