New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin relayed this anecdote in June in Staten Island as he and community health leaders announced the arrival of two vending machines that stock “public health” supplies like naloxone kits, also known by the brand name Narcan. “The public health vending machines make it more likely that those kinds of life-saving scenarios will happen again in the future.” Mirroring nationwide trends, New York City began to see a spike in fatal drug overdoses around 2014 and then peaked in 2022. That year, the city recorded 3,070 fatal drug overdoses, a figure that has since dropped significantly, according to a city Health Department report in October 2025. Every school in New York City stocks naloxone, and school nurses are trained to administer treatment.