Naloxone Boxes Installed in Greenfield

GREENFIELD — Four naloxone boxes — located at Energy Park, Hillside Park, and the two Greenfield City Hall public restrooms — were recently installed across the city. Naloxone boxes are public-access locations that hold free, readily available intranasal (sprayed through the nose) naloxone.

Naloxone is an emergency medication with the ability to reverse an opioid overdose. The naloxone boxes will be refilled weekly by Tapestry Health and will make naloxone more accessible, increasing the availability of a first-aid, life-saving medication and reducing stigma for persons with opioid-use disorder.

This effort, spearheaded by local agencies, such as the Opioid Task Force of Franklin County and the North Quabbin, Tapestry Health, the North Quabbin Community Coalition, and Boston Medical Center, is part of the National Institutes of Health’s HEALing Communities Study. The study began in 2019 with 16 Massachusetts communities that qualified based on opioid overdose fatality rates.

The new naloxone boxes are part of the $800,000 the task force received to finance opioid-related fatality-reduction strategies in Greenfield, Athol, Montague, and Orange.

The decision to install naloxone boxes follows an extensive planning process by local agencies in collaboration with Greenfield leadership. Several community outreach meetings helped inform where the naloxone boxes would be installed.

“The city welcomes the opportunity to be a partner with Tapestry and the Opioid Task Force in this effective, lifesaving, harm-reduction effort by allowing naloxone boxes to be available in our city hall and public parks,” Greenfield Mayor Roxann Wedegartner said.