From February to November in 2021, an anonymous call center registered 637 people for the program with an access code to the vending machine which distributed 3,360 naloxone doses and 10,155 fentanyl test strips.

Taking place in Hamilton County, the machine is credited for a reduction in drug overdose deaths and HIV incidence.

Lead scientist Daniel Arendt described the method as "harm reduction," which acknowledges that people always have, and probably always will, use drugs even if they're potentially lethal in large doses.

Harm reduction, as the University of Cininnati press describes, is a paradigm that "does not support or enable drug use, but instead aims to empathetically meet people where they are in the course of their drug use and help empower them to take steps which minimize the potential hazards associated with its use."