A new kind of vending machine now greets visitors to the Newton County Detention Center from its perch between the door and the cash deposit kiosk. But it’s not selling candy or snacks or soda. It’s offering naloxone, an emergency medication used to reverse opioid overdoses, for free.
The Newton County Sheriff’s Office installed the novel machine at the beginning of the month in partnership with GNR Health, the local health department for Gwinnett, Newton and Rockdale counties. The Georgia Opioid Crisis Abatement Trust gave GNR a two-year, $196,800 grant, which has gone toward funding the project.
The machine, stocked with roughly 120 boxes of medication, is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the sheriff’s office said, and people have already used it in the two weeks since it was installed.
“Our hope is that this machine will not only help protect lives in Newton County, but also serve as a model for communities beyond,” said Caitlin Jett, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office.
Cassandra Price-Bagley, director of the Office of Addictive Diseases within the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, said the goal is to saturate Georgia with naloxone, making the drug as accessible as possible. Naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan, reverses opioid overdoses by attaching to opioid receptors in the brain and blocking other opioids.
Georgia had 15,457 opioid overdose incidents requiring an emergency response from 2024 to the present, according to the Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program (ODMAP). Newton County accounted for 173 of those incidents and Narcan was administered in 65% of those cases in Newton.
“We believe that everyone deserves an opportunity to recover from substance use disorder, and to do that, we’ve got to have all the tools,” Price-Bagley said.
Credit: handout from Newton County Sheriff's Office
Credit: handout from Newton County Sheriff's Office
The Georgia legislature legalized vending machines that dispense overdose drugs and protected pharmacists from punishment for filling them last year. Republican state Rep. Sharon Cooper of Marietta, who sponsored the bill, said she was thrilled that the Newton County Sheriff’s Office had installed the machine.
“My philosophy is, if we can make Narcan available, if it saves a life, even if they have to use it two or three times, there’s hope,” she said.
Cooper said she had some concern about the sheriff’s office’s policy requiring people to request a token to use the machine. Jett said the sheriff’s office installed the token system so that no one hoards the drugs and there’s enough to go around.
Andy Gish, emergency room nurse and director of the Georgia Overdose Protection advocacy group, suggested a zip code instead of a token system. Gish said she has lost friends, neighbors and patients to opioid overdose, which has pushed her to fight for naloxone access. As part of her work with Georgia Overdose Protection, she created a map to show locations in Georgia with free naloxone access. Gish said Newton’s naloxone vending machine is the first machine she’s heard of in a law enforcement facility.
Newton County Sheriff’s Office has their deputies keep the drug on hand when they respond to calls. Many Atlanta metro police departments also regularly use the medication. Atlanta Police Department and Cobb County Police Department both equip officers and vehicles with Narcan. DeKalb County Police said their officers are trained in the use of the medication, and many carry doses with them on calls.
“Being able to offer people treatment when they need it when they’re ready is very critical,” Price-Bagley said. “We want to keep people with us, want to keep them alive and healthy, and we miss an opportunity if we don’t have naloxone.”
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