Oklahoma Organizations Partner Up To Combat Fentanyl Crisis

The Oklahoma's Substance Abuse organization has partnered with the Turnpike authority to install vending machines with Narcan and drug testing strips at travel stops.

“Fentanyl is 50 times more powerful than heroin and 100 times more Morphine, and so it just takes a tiny bit mixed into a substance that can cause a fatality,” said Bonnie Campo with the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.

As numbers have increased, the department has come up with a strategy to help bring those numbers down. They've installed vending machines containing Naloxone and Fentanyl test strips, where people can walk up, type in their zip code and choose between the 2 for free.

The Department partnered with the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority to have these machines at travel centers, which see millions of people each day. 

Lisa Salim with the OTA says after some of their workers were exposed to Fentanyl, they realized how important it was to have.

“It really heightened our awareness of what they could be approaching and exposed to at some of these crashes,” Salim said. 

Both departments say with 24-hour access to the machines, it's the perfect partnership.

“We can protect state workers, but we can also help those who just need more resources, and so by having these stationed across the state, it just puts those resources into the readily available in the hands that need them,” said Campo.

“We’re just helping make these materials available in high traffic areas,” Salim said. 

Salim says 40 machines are part of the initial rollout and 8 of those will be for turnpike locations. 

Campo believes the overdose-reversal drug should be more readily available and normalized. 

“It’s just ever-present and it's creating that idea of ‘okay, this is just a normal part of our lives,’ to have this product readily available when you’re walking past it,” she said.

There is a vending machine currently available at the Tulsa Day Center.