Southern Colorado company helps organizations provide new approach to fight opioid crisis

SECURITY-WIDEFIELD, Colo. (KKTV) - A vending company in Security-Widefield is working with organizations on a national scale to increase access to potentially life-saving medication in the wake of an opioid epidemic.

Discount Vending Store has already supplied some of their custom machines to Oklahoma’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse in an effort to increase access to Naloxone (Narcan) and fentanyl testing strips in impacted communities. They said they’re working to provide more of these machines to partners in other states... and here in Colorado.

“This is not going away,” Discount Vending Store President Jeff Cramer said. “People are catching on, realizing it’s saving peoples lives, and it’s going to become more and more popular, in my opinion.”

Locally, the number of accidental drug-related deaths has increased over the past several years, according to a county public health report released last month. The El Paso County Coroner told 11 News that there were about 115 accidental fentanyl deaths in the county in 2022, up from 99 in 2021.

“This feels big, it’s really exciting when so many people are calling us right now and we have products ready to go, and I know that they’re gonna be out in libraries and universities and all over Colorado and the country very soon,” Cramer said.

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