State overdose prevention initiative to include vending machine at University of Arkansas

• In 2022, 617 Arkansans died of drug overdoses, according to the CDC.

State of play: The university and state attorney general's office kicked off the joint "One Pill Can Kill" initiative this week, according to a news release.

How it works: The state will pay for kits, including fentanyl testing strips, gloves, resource cards and pill disposal bags plus a vending machine to contain them along with naloxone, an emergency overdose reversal drug.

• The university's Pat Walker Health Center will train students on how to administer naloxone.
• The vending machine will be in the southeast vestibule of Pat Walker Health Center, but an installation date is TBD because of some extra electrical work that will need to be done, university spokesperson John Thomas told Axios.

Flashback: The testing strips, which check other drugs for fentanyl, were illegal and considered drug paraphernalia until this year.

• A law endorsed by Attorney General Tim Griffin and signed by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders last year to ramp up penalties for trafficking fentanyl also included legislation that decriminalized those test strips.
• The university already keeps some naloxone on its grounds in light of another 2023 law requiring public high schools and colleges to have it on campus.

What's next: The state is starting with the Fayetteville campus, but the initiative will be statewide, Griffin said in a news release.