Free Lifesaving Narcan 'Vending Machines' Launched in Dallas' Deep Ellum

An epidemic of opoid overdoses is sweeping America, and North Texas isn’t immune to it. When an overdose happens, minutes can count—and a quick treatment of Narcan nasal spray can be the difference between life and death. Now a coalition of local organizations is beginning to get free Narcan to places where it’s needed most—with a mix of resourcefulness, recycling, and an artistic touch.

The project got a public launch last week at the Deep Ellum Community Center east of downtown Dallas, with one of the artful vending machines on display and a range of information and demonstrations presented on how the Narcan kits work.

Conscience Conduit COO & CMO Anthony Delabano loads a free Narcan vending machine at the Deep Ellum Community Center event, with help from his 9-year-old daughter Autumn.[Photo: Jason Janik]

Anthony Delabano—former drummer of the Dallas band Spector 45—is a key driver of the North Texas effort. He’s the COO & CMO of Dallas-based Conscience Conduit, which formed over the winter of 2023-’24. His organization works on a range of projects from Bottles Without Barriers to a counselor-led support group for law enforcement officers to a planned prison reform project.

So how did these pro-social projects lead to Delabano’s young daughter helping him pack a Narcan vending machine in Deep Ellum?

The Narcan Vending Machine Project got a public unveiling last week at the Deep Ellum Community Center. [Photo: Jason Janik]

‘I’ve lost a lot of friends to overdoses’

Delabano has many reasons for navigating the Narcan project—some of them deeply personal.

“I’ve lost a lot of friends to overdoses,” he told Dallas Innovates. “I want my friends to stop dying and I don’t want other people to go through losing their friends. Also, I want my friends to do well in life and I think there’s opportunities around this to take care of our artists and those that need funding through these projects.”

Three Dallas artists are taking part in the Narcan vending machine project, by turning old, refurbished vending machines into attention-grabbing works of art: Ace Cordell is doing the welded design; Kaia Beggs is creating the graphics and colorful design enhancements; and Tyson Summers is doing wrap designs including creating characters on the machines and rendering a gold leaf edition.

A Narcan vending machine gets some artistic preparation [Photo via Conscience Conduit]

The goal is to put Narcan—a brand name of naloxone, a medication that can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose—into an eye-catching machine that can blend in creatively with a wide range of surroundings, from music venues to high schools to recovery support organizations.

“It’s a true collaboration,” Delabano said.

Partners from across Texas joining the mission

Livegy Founder Cynthia Pursley demonstrating how to treat an overdose victim with Narcan nasal spray, which is dispensed in the vending machines. [Photo: Jason Janik]

The Narcan vending machine project is a team effort with support from across Texas. Back in June, Delabano and his team were inspired by the work of Em Gray’s N.I.C.E. Project in Austin (short for Narcan In Case of Emergency), which had launched the first free Narcan vending machines in Texas. Delabano called Gray “the Narcan Queen of Texas” and his biggest inspiration for the project.

Aiming to replicate N.I.C.E.’s work in North Texas, Conscience Conduit is collaborating with the Hurst-based nonprofit Livegy, which provides Narcan packages and training throughout Texas.

Attracting needed attention at the Deep Ellum Community Center event. [Photo: Jason Janik]

Garland City Council Member Deborah Morris, who’s currently running for mayor of the city, supports the effort and suggested that Conscience Conduit work with Garland ISD by bidding to make Narcan vending machines available in the district’s high schools, Delabano said.

Concience Conduit has requests coming in from local fire departments as well, and is working with Dallas County Health and Human Services on getting supply logistics help for the machines.

Delabano’s marketing business, Market Head Media—which has a business model of “giving back on Fridays”—is also working with Livegy as a vendor on its nonprofit mission.

Turning cast-off vending machines into lifesavers

Old vending machines are being refurbished and repurposed into artfully redesigned Narcan vending machines [Photo: Conscience Conduit]

Delabano’s father-in-law Jerry Fernandes—an engineer who co-founded the Dallas Amputee Network—is currently refurbishing 30 old vending machines, turning them into free Narcan dispensers.

The team sourced the machines from Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and other venues.

“Our team looks for very unique vending machines that are old and coin operated,” Delabano said. “Most end up in the trash rather than online because there’s such little value for them, until now. But they’re excellent when you break the mechanism and upscale them with your artist friends to deliver free help. Then they can dispense a variety of things such as Narcan as well as condoms and lube, HIV education, and HIV test opportunities.”

30 vending machines to be distributed by end of year

Narcan vending machine unveiled at the Deep Ellum Community Center event. [Photo: Jason Janik]

The team’s first vending machine has now been installed at 3116 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Southern Dallas, at a location of the North Texas nonprofit Association of Persons Affected by Addiction (APAA), a recovery community support organization.

Once all the machines have been refurbished and received artful enhancements, they’ll be headed in all directions to make a difference.

“We plan to distribute them by the end of the year throughout North Texas and Texas in general,” Delabano said.

A few of the machines will likely end up in Deep Ellum, he noted, and five more are slated to be installed throughout Tarrant County in partnership with the nonprofit Unity Recovery.

Livegy’s display table at the Deep Ellum Community Center event. [Photo: Jason Janik]

Getting help from the public

Last week’s Deep Ellum event is one way Conscience Conduit is trying to get word of the mission out to the public.

“There are so many opportunities for people to come together and collaborate,” Delabano said. “I saw the arts as a perfect opportunity to create a movement to garner support from the public and awareness for them and everyone involved. I also saw it as in way to undercut corporate greed by creating a model where artists can make money by working on the machines.” The result? Narcan vending machines that are “a quarter of the cost of machines hospitals purchase,” Delabano said, while being “embedded in community support.”

Steering users toward resources

“We’ve also placed QR codes on our machines to provide access to a variety of resources, as well as QR survey options on packaging designed to ask three simple questions if one of these dispensers are used,” Delabano noted. “This is so that we can help triangulate resources for specific areas and people. Sometimes that might mean a program that’s currently implemented is harming, and that’s very important to point out. Sometimes it means there aren’t enough resources in an area to serve a need. Sometimes it means you discover need that wasn’t there.”

Finding a mission in music, too

As for Delabano’s music career, it’s been marked by tragedy. He witnessed the devastation of untreated mental illness when two of his former Spector 45 bandmates, Frankie Campagna and Adam Carter, unexpectedly took their lives. While grieving those losses, Delabano created a local nonprofit called Foundation 45 to offer free mental health and recovery services to the Dallas-Fort Worth creative community.

In 2023, Dallas Innovates wrote about the nonprofit’s Art of the Guitar fundraising event, where 45 guitars artfully redesigned by 45 fine artists were auctioned off to fund the program.

Today, Delabano is still pursuing music along with his many other projects.

“I’m playing with Hope Hendrix with a new project and having fun,” he said. “It’s still hard, even after all these years, to get that band back in me or even to enjoy music, but I keep trying. I’m really enjoying following my heart and just keeping it simple right now.”