By Steve Klamkin WPRO News  

On “international overdose awareness day”, activists staged a “die-in” outside the state’s health and human services offices to call on the state to provide $3 million a year to purchase enough Narcan to prevent drug overdose deaths. 

The group of about 40 people carried mock coffins and lay down in silence in front of the state office at the Howard Complex in Cranston.   

Michelle McKenzie is among the activists, who said close to 400 people a year die of overdose in Rhode Island, deaths the she said Narcan can help prevent. 

“That’s what we’re doing,” said McKenzie. “We’re begging for Narcan. And the rest of the day, we can commemorate the ones that we love.”  

“We should have enough Narcan, that should be the very, very least that is made available, that Narcan is made available to people that it is in the hands of people who need it,” she said.  

McKenzie said that while the state has other programs to help counter deaths from overdose, the state needs about 45,000 doses of Narcan, which can help counteract the effects of overdoses.  

Listen to a conversation with Michelle McKenzie of PONI – Preventing Overdose and Naloxone Intervention