Harm reduction: an opioid "vending machine"

British Columbia -- ground zero for the opioid epidemic in Canada and long a principal point of ingress for heroin -- pioneered the harm-reduction approach with the world's first safe injection sites; now addiction researcher and MD Mark Tyndall wants to go further and end accidental overdoses from fentanyl and other additives by giving registered addicts access to an armored, biometrically controlled "opioid vending machine" that dispenses prescribed amounts of hydromorphone pills without subjecting addicts -- whose lives are often chaotic due to homelessness and the need to steal or prostitute themselves to avoid dope-sickness -- to a bureaucratic process at a pharmacy or clinic.

Tyndall points out that the opioid epidemic is not like other epidemics, which slow down after the vulnerable population is killed off -- rather, opioids keep finding their way into the hands (and veins) of fresh addicts, and the body count is mounting.

Tyndall came up with his proposal spontaneously, while giving a talk at an overdose symposium in Victoria, BC, and the idea was spotted by Corey Yantha of Nova Scotia's Dispension Industries, a startup that makes armored, biometric legal weed vending machines (Canada legalized marijuana last year).

Tyndall's idea has been divisive. It may be the reason he was fired from his long tenure as executive director at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control. But it also attracted $1.4M from Health Canada for a phase-one trial, partly on the strength of Tyndall's exemplary record as a harm reduction/public health activist during the AIDS epidemic. Read the rest