By Tomas Weber
Dr. Jonathan Avery, left, with Eve Morin.
On a November afternoon in Philadelphia, a group of New York City teenagers in town for a synagogue youth trip came upon a man in his 40s lying on the sidewalk, an arm outstretched.
“Clearly, something was wrong,” says Eve Morin, the trip leader and associate director of teen engagement at Central Synagogue in midtown Manhattan. “This wasn’t somebody just sleeping on the street.”
The teenagers were eager to help, but Morin’s first instinct was caution. “They actually convinced me,” she says.
As they approached, they saw the man’s eyes were rolled back, his lips blue, his breathing shallow. Morin suspected an overdose. While one teen called 911, Morin remembered what was in her bag: Narcan nasal spray.
Narcan (naloxone) reverses overdoses by blocking opioid receptors in the brain. Since attending a community Narcan training at the synagogue led by Weill Cornell Medicine faculty in 2018, Morin carries a kit wherever she goes — but she had never used it.
“It’s an all-hands-on-deck situation with the opioid epidemic,” says Dr. Jonathan Avery, professor of clinical psychiatry and vice chair for addiction psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine, who has led trainings across New York City — in venues ranging from libraries and schools to bars and clubs — since 2015. “Narcan gives you the opportunity to be a good community member and to potentially save a life.”
Morin displays a Narcan kit.
“It’s an all-hands-on-deck situation with the opioid epidemic. Narcan gives you the opportunity to be a good community member and to potentially save a life.”
Dr. Jonathan Avery
Dr. Avery partners with Central Synagogue members John Sicher and Robin Kellner, who share their daughter Zoe’s story at each training session. The couple has provided support to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where Dr. Avery is an attending psychiatrist, for community trainings since Zoe lost her life to an accidental overdose in 2007. They also have supported the development of educational and practice-level interventions by Dr. Avery, who is an attending psychiatrist there, around the stigma surrounding substance use disorder.
Such training sessions can be impactful. In 2024, overdose deaths in New York City declined by 28% from the year before — from 3,056 to 2,191 — due in part to broader Narcan access, according to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
“When it first came out, Narcan was daunting, but over the last decade it’s become very easy to use,” says Dr. Avery, who is also the Stephen P. Tobin and Dr. Arnold M. Cooper Professor in Consultation Liaison Psychiatry. “You just put it in somebody’s nose and squirt.”
Standing on the sidewalk, adrenaline pumping, Morin knew what to do. Before long, the man was standing up, talking to a police officer.
After the incident, the entire youth group wanted training. Weill Cornell Medicine faculty led another session, and now those teens carry Narcan kits and distribute them to unhoused people in midtown Manhattan.
Since 2023, Narcan has been available over the counter nationwide — the only medication that can be administered to someone without their explicit consent. Carrying it “is a no-brainer,” says Morin. “We gave that man a second chance. I hope he took it.”