STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- NYPD officers used an anti-overdose medicine to save two men on Staten Island Friday, according to police.

The rescues, both of which took place in the West Shore's 121st Precinct, come just weeks after the NYPD announced that it would put Narcan - a nasal spray that can reverse opioid overdoses -- in the hands of police officers in all four of the Island's police precincts.

The first incident took place at about 6:55 p.m., when two officers, Valerie Matteo and John Cannizzaro, responded to a call of an unconscious man outside an address on Merrill Avenue in Bulls Head. There, an NYPD spokesman said they found a 27-year-old man, unconscious, with a bottle of the anti-anxiety drug Xanax in his hand.

Xanax is not an opioid, but people sometimes combine prescription medications, one NYPD source said.

Cannizzaro administered two doses of the spray -- the first dose partly revived the man, while the second brought him back to consciousness, police said. He was taken to Richmond University Medical Center, West Brighton, where he was listed in stable condition.

The second took place at 10:45 p.m., inside an apartment on Holland Avenue, in one of the buildings in the Arlington Terrace Apartments complex in Mariners Harbor. Officers Michael Ustick and John Fabrizio responded to a call of an unconscious person, and were greeted by a woman who said her husband had taken morphine moments earlier, police said.

Fabrizio administered two doses of the Narcan spray, and the man, 63, became conscious and alert, police said. He was taken to Richmond University Medical Center, where he's listed in stable condition, according to police.

Narcan, which is a nasal spray of the medicine naloxone, can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose long enough for the victim to get medical treatment.

Its use has grown in popularity in recent months, as prescription drug abuse and now, heroin abuse, has swept through suburban communities. The scourge has hit Staten Island particularly hard, with heroin and prescription pill overdoses killing 73 borough residents in 2012.

Police last December started equipping officers in the 120st Precinct with Narcan as part of a pilot program, and the program saved three lives in the first three months of 2014, according to officials. Friday's saves mark the fourth and fifth successful uses of the spray, police said.

In April, the NYPD announced that it would use money secured by District Attorney Daniel Donovan to equip police officers in all four of the borough's precinct with the drug. Earlier this month, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced that MTA police officers patrolling the Staten Island Railway, Metro-North and the Long Island Railroad would also carry the medication.