In the course of the 12 months that free doses of the overdose-reversal drug naloxone have been publicly obtainable at 5 Pink Line stops, none seem to have been put into use on the stations, the MBTA mentioned in a report back to the Legislature this month.
With $95,000 from the fiscal 12 months 2024 price range, the T final summer time made cupboards with doses of naloxone (additionally identified by the model title Narcan) obtainable at Quincy Heart, Ashmont, Andrew, South Station and Harvard together with signage in English, Spanish and Chinese language on learn how to acknowledge an opioid overdose, learn how to administer Narcan, and learn how to contact emergency help.
About 516 doses of Narcan have been distributed among the many stations between June 2024 and April 2025, the T mentioned in a legislative report dated Oct. 8, however there have been “no known instances of on-site use of naloxone from the cabinets or overdoses that can be linked to the public-access naloxone.”
The T mentioned all doses taken from the cupboards, so far as it’s conscious, “have been carried off site.” Between the Narcan, cupboards and prices related to putting in the cupboards, the T mentioned it spent about $55,500 of the $95,000 that lawmakers earmarked for the pilot. The transit company additionally steered that another person take over the duty of creating Narcan obtainable alongside the subway system.
“As a result of this pilot, the MBTA has determined that it does not currently have sufficient resources or appropriate personnel needed to manage the day-to-day administration of such a program. However, MBTA Transit Police Officers will continue to carry naloxone,” MBTA Chief of Coverage and Strategic Planning Lynsey Heffernan wrote within the report. “The MBTA recommends that any public access program in or near stations be managed by a third party such as an agency whose mission is aligned with such an important program and that has the resources and personnel to monitor and resupply naloxone as well as to manage for temperature fluctuations.”
Heffernan mentioned the T has been in contact with the Division of Public Health’s Bureau of Substance Habit Companies and the Cambridge Health Alliance looking for strategies for an additional public well being associate appropriate to imagine accountability for the Narcan cupboard program. No associate has but been recognized, she mentioned.
