Free Narcan vending machines expand
By Robbie Owens
Click here for updates on this story
DEEP ELLUM, Texas (KTVT) — An effort born in Deep Ellum to save lives with second-hand vending machines is expanding, dispensing second chances with free Narcan.
Last year, Anthony Delbano, the COO of ConscienceConduit.org, rolled out the first repurposed vending machine dispensing the lifesaving Narcan in Deep Ellum.
Narcan is 80% effective in reversing an opioid overdose, as long as it is administered quickly.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, drug overdose is the leading cause of death in the U.S. for those aged 18-45. That’s in spite of the fact that the numbers of overdose deaths declined between 2023 and 2024.
In the months since the vending machines debuted, something amazing has happened more than once.
“We heard here at the [Deep Ellum] community center at one of our Sunday Suppers, twice, that we had saved somebody here,” Delabano said. A third life was saved in San Antonio, and those are just the ones that organizers are aware of.
“Looking back … it’s been a total success,” he said.
Delabano is a businessman, a musician, and a recovering addict now 12 years sober. “People make mistakes, but this drug doesn’t allow a lot of people to have a second chance,” Delabano said.
“I try not to stop and think about it. You know, it gets… it will get really emotional real quick,” he said.
Delabano said the effort is personal after losing close friends to both overdose deaths and suicide. He stressed that the lives lost, like ripples in a pond, leave so many others to manage the grief and pain.
The lives saved, however, encouraged him to do more, he said. Now, the Narcan vending machine effort is expanding beyond Deep Ellum to communities throughout North Texas, with one recently installed in a Dallas barbershop.
“Right before I could even get the machine in there, I had people asking me for pieces of Narcan,” Delabano said. “This was in a zip code where people are dying, right? The zip code next to it. People are dying. I mean… that was probably my happiest moment.”
He knows that people are still struggling.
“Just because you don’t hear about it, doesn’t mean it’s not happening,” he said.
After the original story aired on CBS News Texas, inquiries came in from across the country.
“I mean, the first person to reach out to us from another state was Alaska,” says Peter Pursley with Livegy. “And so just for that in itself we were like, what? Like. All right. Awesome! And so from since then, it just sort of snowballed.”
Livegy is a partner in the effort, providing the free Narcan for the vending machines. A QR code on each machine tells the story of the artist that transformed the second-hand machines, and also directs users to resources to access more long term help.
“We’re hopefully showing people that this isn’t in support of drug use, ” Pursley said. “This is in support of giving second chances.”
If you’d like to learn more, the community is invited to a Sunday Supper at the Deep Ellum Community Center on Sunday, March 16 from 3:00-6:00. Hosted by ‘Art of the Machine’, expect food, family fun, and entertainment from Confetti Eddie Magic.
They will also have a booth at the Deep Ellum Arts Festival coming up April 4th-6th
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
