The Sackville United Church proudly hosts a new service tucked just inside its front door on the intersection of Bridge and Main Street.

It’s an interactive dispensing service, otherwise referred to as a “harm reduction vending machine” due to its resemblance to the beloved snack dispenser.

While there are snacks in the machine, its main goal is harm reduction by way of free supplies for substance use and educational resources. The machine came to Sackville in part due to the advocacy of former pharmacy tech Ashley Legere, whose passion for harm reduction ignited projects such as free paper bag harm reduction kits.

“I have worked in pharmacy long enough to know person is taking 10 needles and using them for 21 days. That means that they’re using [the needles] over and over again,” explains Legere. “In a small community, [that] can very quickly lead to things like Hep C, HIV, and endocarditis.”

Legere recalls a specific young person whose family “fell apart” after she contracted endocarditis, which is an inflammation of the inner lining of the heart’s chambers and valves usually caused by an infection.

“I thought something has to be done here, and nothing is being done here,” says Legere. “There’s no resources here for this very vulnerable group of people that I serve every day.”

So Legere called Debby Warren, executive director of harm reduction-based nonprofit Ensemble Moncton, to see what could be done.

The dynamic duo quickly launched a project to hand out supplies for free from Legere’s job at the Corner Drug Store. Legere says the service became popular enough that by the time Warren returned from her vacation, 2000 needles had been distributed to roughly 40 people in the community.

The machine is stocked with supplies similar to the ones Legere handed out during her time at the Corner Drug Store, along with personal protection equipment to protect against COVID-19 and unused materials for substance use.

Legere says that the unused supplies are there to ensure that people don’t make themselves ill or injure themselves by reusing supplies over and over again.

Warren says the interactive dispensing service is barrier-free in terms of anonymity, as no one needs to provide ID or their real names in order to access the machine.

“We don’t want any money in machine. We don’t want anyone breaking into it thinking they can get money, because it’s empty,” says Warren. “[Eventually] it may be that you pick a code, and you use that code to access [the machine]. At our needle distribution service, we do not have clients first and last names, they give us code name, so they could be Minnie Mouse 1989.”

The codenames are useful for data collection as well as anonymity, so that the machine can record demographic information.

Legere adds that the machine can support those who are unable to come into Ensemble or other harm reduction organizations. Instead, they can just walk in and out of the church quickly and anonymously.

“There’s a lot of people who don’t come in [to Ensemble] who use the machine,” notes Legere. She says that some clients may be agoraphobic or embarrassed, and perhaps find the machine easier than interacting with a person.

“I have found over the course of last a few week, people who come in are saying, ‘I’ve never been here before, I just use your machine.’ So finally, it’s accessing more people than we’ve even knew existed.”

Warren is impressed by the swell of support from the Sackville United Church, and the community as a whole throughout the project.

She says New Brunswick has the second highest number of people who inject drugs per capita, and is grateful to see the community recognize this issue.

“At Ensemble, we sit on this very busy street corner. It felt for years, [that] we were all by ourselves, but we don’t own this crises in our community,” says Warren. “We’re part of the ship and maybe part of rudder, but we need other people to be the rudder with us.”

“I commend Sackville for [recognizing] there is an issue, and they’re going to do something about it. The folks that live in their community will be treated with respect.”

Legere says the presence of the machine presents the opportunity for community education about substance use, which will in turn create a safer Sackville.

“I’m going to raise a family in this community. It’s important to me it as safe as possible and have the community as aware as possible that that there’s an issue,” says Legere. “How do we keep our kids safe? How do we keep our community safe? The very first step in educating [people]. When people know that [the machine is] there, and they’re curious about it, then they can ask more questions.”

Check out the machine for yourself at the Sackville United Church at 110 Main St. Everyone is welcome to use it for any reason, there are snacks and sanitary supplies available.

Hear this story as reported by CHMA: