A life-saving drug will soon be carried by thousands of city cops to help prevent heroin overdoses, officials announced Tuesday.
While Staten Island police officers use the nasal spray, about 20,000 New York police officers - more than half of the entire NYPD - will soon carry doses of Naloxone, USA Today reported.
Naloxone is a nasal spray that helps revive victims suffering from a heroin or prescription drug overdose, New York Daily News reported.
"We can't arrest our way out of a drug problem. Naloxone gives individuals a second chance to get help," Police Commissioner William Bratton said.
The state's Office of the Attorney General will provide $1.2 million for the initiative to supply nearly 20,000 kits. Each kit costs about $60 and lasts about two years, according to The New York Times.
"This past weekend, #naloxone saved 2 lives in $StatenIsland. Now all @NYPDnews cops- often 1st on the scene of OD- will have that ability," New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman tweeted.
As U.S. witnessed a rise in heroin overdoses, more police departments are looking closely at equipping their officers with naloxone instead of waiting for paramedics to arrive at the scene.
"Naloxone binds to the opioid receptors in the brain, displacing other drugs and reversing the effects of an overdose," USA Today reported.
Lasting for about 30 to 90 minutes, the emergency antidote can be administered by injection into a muscle or as a nasal spray, Alexander Walley, an addiction medicine specialist at the Boston University School of Medicine, told USA Today this year.
"You cannot prosecute yourself out of a drug epidemic," Schneiderman said after announcing that he will be spending $1 million to provide the NYPD with the drug, nasal injectors and the training needed to utilize the drug.
The money will come from funds collected in drug forfeiture cases, which Bratton called an "ironic" and "creative" way to use the seized funds.
