Free Drug Overdose Seminar with Narcan Training

In an effort to combat the continuing war on prescription drug abuse and the heroin epidemic, Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano launched a free public Narcan training program in September 2012 with the goal of teaching ordinary citizens the signs of an Opioid overdose and how to reverse its effects.

According to the CDC, deaths by Opioids – such as Heroin and prescription painkillers – now outnumber deaths by traffic accidents. Since 2011, more than 498 people died in Nassau from Opioid overdoses.

While Opioid abuse has become a widespread epidemic, County Executive Mangano and Nassau’s Office on Mental Health & Chemical Dependency, have found a way help prevent some of the drug related deaths and give people a second chance at recovery.

Naloxone, also known by the Trade name Narcan, can be administered through a simple nasal spray, and works by attaching itself to the Opioid receptors in the brain therefore protecting them from the Opioids that were ingested. Through Narcan training seminars, residents can learn how and when to administer the lifesaving antidote that can reverse the fatal effects of an Opioid overdose and save a person’s life. All trainees receive the Narcan, free, at the end of the training.

Since becoming State-certified as an Overdose Responder Program in late 2012 – the first County in the state, outside of New York City, to do so - Nassau County has hosted more than 70 such events and trained more than 2,000 members of the public on how to administer Narcan. 

Countless lives have been saved.