University of Massachusetts Police Department officers will soon be required to carry Narcan, an opioid overdose-reversing drug, as the heroin epidemic continues to affect the state. Local elementary, middle and high schools have been considering doing the same, although they have not made any final decisions.

UMPD is in the process of purchasing the Narcan, which will be placed in key patrol cars, according to interim police chief Patrick Archbald.

Opioids can slow breathing to the point of death in an overdose. Narcan blocks the opioids and restores normal breathing when sprayed into the nose of the overdosing person, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s fact sheet.

According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 902 confirmed fatal opioid-related overdose deaths of Massachusetts residents were reported in 2013. This was a 26.9 percent increase from deaths in 2012. Last June, Governor Charlie Baker’s Opioid Working Group recommended that treatment beds in Greenfield be increased to 64 by October as part of its action plan to curb the opioid epidemic in the state, according to MassLive.com.

“It’s certainly the case here, so it just makes sense for us to take this measure,” Archbald said.

The discussion to use Narcan started with John Horvath, who was serving as UMPD chief last spring. Archbald and UMPD’s two deputy chiefs then discussed the proposed measure with the police unions.

Archbald said he hopes all officers can be trained in the administration of the drug by the end of November.

Funding for the Narcan will come from the department’s own budget, with an anticipated cost of approximately $2,000, according to Archbald.

Multiple local school districts are implementing a Narcan program or are in the process of discussing whether or not to stock the drug.

The Hadley Public School District, however, has stocked Narcan in both its elementary and combined middle and high school, Hopkins Academy, since October 2014, according to  The Daily Hampshire Gazette.

“We were aware that there’s an epidemic of opioid abuse and death from opioid overdoses, and we want to participate in that solution,” said Renee Denenfeld, nurse leader for Hadley public schools. She added that the district is also engaged in multiple substance-abuse education efforts.

“We’re really looking at many ways to support our students and hopefully never have to use Narcan here,” she said.

Robbin Suprenant, a school nurse at Amherst-Pelham Regional High School, said the regional school is in the process of implementing a Narcan program hopefully by late fall.

“We keep other emergency lifesaving medications in stock and it probably is something that we need to be looking at,” she said.

“This would just be one more thing, if you will, in our emergency bag,” said Mary Phelan, health education coordinator for the Hampshire Regional School District.

Phelan presented the “overdose problem” to Hampshire Regional High School’s school committee on Oct. 5, which led to the discussion of Narcan on campus. The school committee will make a decision on whether or not to stock Narcan on the high school’s campus at their November meeting, she said.

All school nurses in the district have already been trained by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in administering Narcan.

Phelan said the district hasn’t seen any heroin use that officials are aware of.

“We’re just trying to be prepared and be up front in case that emergency should happen,” she said. “Right now, heroin seems to really have a strong hold in New England.”

Phelan plans to go to the school district’s five other school committees and present on this issue. Each committee will make their own decision, she said.

Northwestern district attorney David E. Sullivan has offered to supply Narcan to the schools in his district, according to Lynn Ferro, project coordinator of the Northwestern Prescription Drug Abuse Task Force, in an email. Training will also be provided for all school nurses, she said.

“The D.A. is supplying the Narcan to hasten the process so that individual schools do not have to go through whatever budget/decision making processes that could potentially hold up their acquisition,” she said. “The DA does not want the lack of Narcan in a school to have been a budget issue.”

The D.A.’s office has supplied Narcan to first responders who attended the office’s training in the summer of 2014, so the office “has the process down,” she said.

Individuals who overdose on opioids will very often have other drugs in their systems, such as alcohol or sleeping pills, but Narcan only works on opioids, Phelan said. She added that it’s a prescription drug but it has no street value.

“Narcan actually puts someone into withdrawal, and that’s not a good way to feel,” she said.

Patricia LeBoeuf can be reached at [email protected].