Montville — By this summer, Montville police will have joined several local departments carrying naloxone, a drug that reverses opioid overdoses.

Officers could be trained and using the drug, also known as Narcan, in about two months, pending an approval process by the Town Council, Lt. Leonard Bunnell said Thursday.  

“We recognized that this was an available resource to save lives,” he said.

First responders with the town's fire departments are already trained to carry the drug to revive patients who have overdosed.

Recently, they have been using it multiple times a week, Bunnell said.

“It’s unfortunate because there’s a need for it,” he said.

The Southeastern Regional Action Council, a regional nonprofit organization helping communities address substance abuse and addiction, will donate the naloxone units to the department and train officers to administer it.

The Town Council must approve the policy change before they can begin administering the drug, Bunnell said.

Waterford police began carrying the drug in their cruisers late last year, following the lead of Groton City police and state police.

Between 2009 and 2014, more than 2,000 people died accidentally after using opiates in 150 of Connecticut's 169 cities and towns.

The state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said heroin was involved in 325 deaths, or 58 percent of all accidental deaths, in 2014.

Several local pharmacies have also begun stocking Narcan in the past several months, prescribing it to people who might need it to save themselves, friends or family from an overdose.

Christa Quattromani, a mental health counselor and volunteer at Shine A Light On Heroin, said in November that some critics of Narcan think it enables addicts to continue using heroin or painkillers without consequences.

"This line of thought is based in a wholly incorrect understanding of the nature of addiction," she said in an email. "Addiction is a brain disease, and has a logic all its own, which often is in direct opposition to rational decision making and self-preservation."

Bunnell said addiction is hard to fight, but police would rather give people the chance to recover.

"It’s a known risk that the pain killers or the heroin will draw them back … again,” he said. “And it’s a dangerous drug. But we’d rather have the ability to save them rather than not.”

m.shanahan@theday.com