How You Can Get Life-Saving Narcan (Naloxone) 

As the Cambridge Public Health Department (CPHD) celebrates National Public Health Week, we would like to draw attention to our substance misuse prevention efforts across the city. Opioid overdoses continue to affect the Cambridge community, and we lost 21 Cambridge residents to opioid overdoses in 2021. To help make our community safer, we have made Narcan widely available to everyone in Cambridge. Narcan, also known as naloxone, is a nasal spray that can reverse an opioid overdose. You may have seen our ads on buses and BlueBikes stations about Narcan to help promote community awareness of this amazing resource!

The best part? CPHD has free Narcan available upon request! It is also available in many City buildings, including City Hall, the libraries, youth centers, and more. They are in clear “NaloxBoxes” and are located near automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in each building. View the map of NaloxBoxes across the city. We also hand out free Narcan at distribution events, along with fentanyl test strips and other harm reduction resources. Keep an eye on our social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter) for announcements with when and where these events will be happening!

Not sure how to use Narcan or help someone when they are overdosing? Join one of our Virtual Overdose Prevention Trainings! We offer them on Zoom on the first Tuesday of each month from 3:00-4:00 pm. Please view  our events calendar and select the date you would like to attend to find out how to join. We also offer training sessions for local businesses, organizations, student groups, and other groups of people interested in overdose prevention as well. These can be held virtually and in-person.

If you are interested in getting Narcan or other harm reduction supplies, learning more about our distribution events, or being trained in overdose prevention, please reach out to our Prevention and Recovery Specialist, Danielle McPeak, at [email protected]. You can learn more on our Overdose Prevention page.