Richmond to add three more ‘harm reduction’ vending machines, doubling anti-overdose arsenal

Richmond is doubling its fleet of free vending machines that offer medication to reverse opioid overdoses, drug-testing strips and first-aid supplies. 

The city’s first “harm reduction vending machines” were installed in 2025 at Marshall Plaza near the courthouse downtown, Southside Plaza off Hull Street and East End Library in Church Hill in an effort to reduce overdoses and limit the public health impacts of drug use.

This spring, three more will be installed at the North Avenue and Ginter Park libraries in Richmond’s Northside and the Broad Rock Library on the Southside. 

In a release about the new machines, the city said it chose the three new locations based on “fatal and nonfatal overdose data in the city and direct community input.” 

The expansion will cost just over $41,000 and will be paid for using funding from the Virginia Opioid Abatement Authority, which oversees the distribution of money from Virginia’s settlements with drug makers and distributors. 

In the six months that the three existing vending machines have been in operation, the city said they have dispensed 916 doses of naloxone — the most well known drug used to reverse opioid overdoses — 276 fentanyl test strips and 1,250 units of first aid and hygiene supplies. 

With the expansion, the city will also begin stocking machines with test strips that can be used to detect xylazine, nitazene and medetomidine, a set of highly potent and dangerous drugs that are increasingly being found mixed with fentanyl and other opioids. 

Richmond is not alone in its use of harm reduction vending machines, which a number of studies have shown tend to be well used and can decrease fatal overdoses. 

In a statement, Anna Jones, an opioid strategist for the city, said that they “represent a vital investment in compassionate, evidence-based public health policy proven to reduce overdose deaths and improve access to care.” 

According to preliminary data from the Virginia Department of Health, Richmond had 34 overdose deaths in 2025, the fourth-highest number in the state after Fairfax County, which had 42, and Henrico and Chesterfield counties, which each had 36. 

Those numbers are not final and could change, but they appear to continue a declining trend in fatal overdoses that has occurred statewide since 2023. 

Contact Reporter Sarah Vogelsong at svogelsong@richmonder.org