On a recent morning, Diana Cardona, co-owner of Revere cafe Chocolafee, changed her 12-hour workday — preparing food, serving customers and managing books — to meet a nurse who came for an unusual training session.
Cardona wanted to learn how to respond if someone overdosed on opioids in or near her restaurant.
The training is part of the City of Revere’s efforts to curb the opioid crisis. It is funded with money from nationwide settlements with opioid companies.
Registered nurse Denise Hartley, co-founder of Atlantic Hill Nursing and Wellness, shows cafe owner Diana Cardona how to administer naloxone. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
Registered nurse Denise Hartley opened a zippered bag that looked like a pencil case. She pulled out two bottles of the overdose drug naloxone, instructions in English and Spanish, and a pair of latex gloves.
She told Cardona the signs to look for to determine whether someone has likely overdosed on opioids: The person is nodding off or unconscious. Your lips or fingers may look bluish. And her pupils are probably the size of a pinhead.
Hartley said the first step is to call 911. She then demonstrated how to administer a dose of naloxone (also known by the brand name Narcan) by inserting the bottle into the person’s nostril and pressing the plunger once. She also explained what to do if someone doesn’t respond immediately to the medication – or comes to but then stops responding.
Cardona said the training made her feel like she was using the drug on someone who had apparently overdosed.
“I think it’s very, very well explained and very easy to use,” she said. “I hope it doesn’t happen, but if it has to happen, I feel like I can help.”
“It’s clear why we needed this [naloxone] in the companies. I mean, you can literally save a life with a spray up your nose.
CarrieAnn Salemme, Revere city employee
The state’s most recent data from 2020 to 2024 shows that the rate of overdose deaths in Revere was higher than the rate for Massachusetts as a whole. In 2022, the year deaths peaked in the city and statewide, 30 people died in Revere and 2,364 statewide.
Cardona, who hosts a video podcast from her coffee shop in which she interviews local politicians, medical experts and other leaders on a variety of topics, knows all too well how hard Revere has been hit by opioids.
“We have a client here who lost her son to drug use in e-cigarettes,” Cardona said. “He was vaping and he ended up having fentanyl in the vape.”
Table of Contents
Use of opioid comparators
Overall, Massachusetts communities have been slow to utilize funds from settlements with opioid companies. The money began disbursing in 2022 after reaching nationwide settlements with several companies that manufacture, distribute and dispense opioids, including Johnson & Johnson and CVS.
States had filed lawsuits alleging that the companies fueled the opioid epidemic by selling the drugs despite knowing their harmful effects on addiction. The agreements are expected to funnel more than $1 billion into Massachusetts by 2038, with more than half of the money going to the state and the rest to local governments.
Some cities that already had the staff and infrastructure in place to implement substance use reduction programs responded quickly, in some cases spending funds in the first year, according to state health department data. Others took a long time to start using the money or still haven’t started. Many of these communities report to the state that it takes time to obtain necessary feedback from community residents, hire staff and develop programs.
In fiscal year 2025, cities and towns in Massachusetts collectively spent about 12% of the $107.7 million they had available to them from three years of settlement payouts.
A naloxone box in front of the Revere Beach MBTA station. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
This time last year, Revere had spent 30% of its approximately $664,000 in funding. In addition to the business naloxone training program, the city has placed nine naloxone cabinets on city streets where anyone can pick up the medication. City staff care for people suffering from substance use disorders and homelessness. They also support people in recovery.
How companies can help save lives
CarrieAnn Salemme, program manager for Revere’s Substance Use Disorder and Homelessness Initiatives Office, said there’s a reason the city is asking businesses to be on the front lines of deadly opioid overdoses: Data the police department sends to the office shows that many overdoses occur in or near places like fast food restaurants and gas stations.
“It’s clear why we needed this [naloxone] in the companies,” Salemme said. “I mean, with a spray up your nose you can literally save a life.”
CarrieAnn Salemme of Revere’s Substance Use Disorder and Homeless Initiatives Office holds weekly clinics at a police station so people can get help dealing with their needs. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
Atlantic Hill Nursing and Wellness, Inc. contracts with Revere to conduct the training program. It began as a pilot program in early 2025 with the goal of training employees in 30 companies within six months. But nurses said the program has grown quickly because companies have been so receptive.
They have trained employees at 198 facilities, from barbershops and banks to gyms and hotels. At each location they leave one of the small bags containing naloxone, gloves, medical masks and instructions.
“If there is an overdose in a public place in Revere, five people should be there with a naloxone kit and say, ‘I have naloxone. I can respond to this,'” said nurse Kerrin Maloney.
Nurses will replenish the supply of naloxone that is being used. No business in the city has yet reported using up its supply, Maloney and Hartley said.
Pastors who participate in the training will receive small kits containing two doses of naloxone, instructions, medical masks and gloves. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
Still, state health officials say programs that distribute naloxone are working and have contributed to a decline in fatal opioid overdoses across Massachusetts since the peak in 2022. Preliminary government data shows deaths fell to 978 last year, the first year in more than a decade that there were fewer than 1,000 fatalities.
In Revere, the number of fatal and non-fatal overdoses also fell significantly during this period.
Protection for companies
On the same day that she conducted the cafe training, Nurse Hartley visited the Wonderland Liquor Store in Revere. She and her colleagues usually show up at companies without notice; They said they have found this to be more successful than calling and trying to arrange training sessions. In this case, they arranged it in advance to let the business owners know that some journalists wanted to observe.
Claudia Cabrera of Wonderland Liquor Store in Revere listens to nurse Denise Hartley during naloxone training. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
Claudia Cabrera ran her father’s liquor store. She said she agreed with administering naloxone but wanted to make sure she did it correctly.
“My main concern would be if I do something or take a wrong step, will I cause harm to the person,” Cabrera said.
But she said the simple instructions calmed her down.
Hartley pointed out that naloxone is not harmful when given, for example, to someone who is not under the influence of opioids. She also emphasized that Massachusetts has strict Good Samaritan laws, meaning a person or company cannot be sued if they act in good faith to help someone.
“Anytime we can give this away, it’s a life that could potentially be saved. So we’re very, very grateful,” Hartley said as she left the store.
https://www.wbur.org/news/2026/07/09/revere-opioid-settlement-funds-naloxone-trainings
