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BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Life-saving naloxone kits--better known by the brand name Narcan--will be installed at MBTA Red Line stations for a year as part of a pilot program.
The program is spearheaded by a group of students in Harvard College Overdose Prevention and Education Students (HCOPES). Sajeev Kohli and Jay Garg, two Harvard students in the group, David Velasquez, a Harvard Medical School student, and Dr. Scott Weiner, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, wrote a proposal in March 2023 to local and state agencies, as well as lawmakers, to secure funding.
The program was granted $95,000 in funding when Gov. Maura Healey approved the state budget earlier this month.
"Middlesex County, the most populous county in Massachusetts and New England, accounted for almost 10% of the total opioid overdose fatalities in Massachusetts in 2020, with many of these deaths occurring in Cambridge," the proposal said. "Between 2018 and 2020, a further 10% of all overdose calls made to emergency responders in Cambridge were associated with incidents reported to have occurred at just five MBTA Red Line stations, according to internal data from the Cambridge Public Health Department."
The students originally proposed to install the kits at five Red Line stations: Harvard Square, Kendall Square, Central Square, Porter Square, and Alewife. While it is unclear how many Red Line stations will be part of the program or when the program will begin, HCOPES members told Boston.com that the plan is to set up two to three kits at stations, preferably at the inbound, outbound, and in public restrooms.
Each kit will have easy instructions on how to use Narcan. The MBTA will be responsible for refilling the kits.
In addition to helping reverse opioid overdoses, HCOPES said the goal of the program is to collect as much data as possible, which could be used to expand the program or inform other programs being considered elsewhere.
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