It’s a sign of the times.

New York City will now have free vending machines on the street dispensing drug paraphernalia.

You need a crack pipe or Narcan or a testing kit to see if you drug of choice contains fentanyl, all you is your zip code and you have it. Free of charge. It’s just a matter of time before needles will be offered.

“Every three hours, we’re losing a New Yorker [to drugs]. And it looks like 2022 is on track to be our highest year ever in overdoses,’’ Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Ashwin Vasan said at a press conference next to the first machine.

This is not only an admission of defeat, it’s an affront to all law abiding residents living near these machines.

How do you explain to a young kid in the neighborhood want that machine is for and them not coming away with the thought that doing drugs is encouraged by the law?

“This is an important arrow in our quiver,’’ Vasan said of the vending machines. “It’s not the be-all and end-all solution, but it’s an important tool that says to New Yorkers, ‘Hey, we are going to bring the tools that saves lives to you.’ ”

No but it is another step closer to “the be-all and end-all ” of civilization as we know it where the vending machines are deployed.

Hopefully — given the ineptitude of City Hall — these vending machines will be emptied within the first hour and left to rust on the streets.