The initiative was greenlit after a successful pilot program in New York City’s Staten Island borough, New York police chief William Bratton said. The pilot program had “proven effective with several overdose victims,” Bratton said.
“This program will literally save lives,” Schneiderman said, adding that naloxone had been “stunningly effective.”
New York authorities have previously warned that heroin abuse had reached “epidemic” levels, saying statistics showed an 84 percent leap in overdoses between 2010 and 2012.