North Carolina Cops Not Using Their Naloxone

Jan. 29--Although some police officers now carry naloxone, an opiate overdose reversal drug, records show that paramedics administer the drug far more often than officers do.

In January 2016, the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition gave the Lenoir Police Department 54 units of naloxone, enough for every officer, and over the course of the year, an officer administered the drug only once. Caldwell Emergency Services also carries naloxone and administered the drug 201 times in 2016, Emergency Services Director Dino DiBernardi said.

Capt. Couby Stilwell of the Lenoir Police Department said that Caldwell Emergency Services often arrives before officers.

"EMS is dispatched first, and that's one of the reasons we don't use it as often," Stilwell said.

George Erwin Jr., executive director of the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police, said that it is not surprising that police rarely use their supply of naloxone.

"Traditionally, I would say EMS is going to respond to most of those calls way before law enforcement does, so I think that's going to be across the board you'll see that," Erwin said. "The call's going to come into a 911 center ... and the person who is going to be responding is EMS, whereas the law enforcement officers who work that zone ... could be tied up in another call."

Lenoir's initial 54 units, to be administered by injection, expired last summer after six months, Stilwell said, but the police department acquired more, this time to be administered in the form of a nasal spray, through a $2,125 grant from Project Lazarus, a group that fights to reduce the abuse of prescription medication.

"It's better to have it and not need it than to not have it at all and need it," Stilwell said. "The number one priority of our officers is not to use this but to make sure emergency personnel are en route."

The Granite Falls Police Department also received naloxone last year through the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition in the form of 14 nasal spray canisters. An officer there also administered the drug just once. Lt. Chris Jenkins agreed on the importance of having it available even if it is little-used by officers.

"You administer it, just within seconds, their color is back. They're breathing. The response is physical when someone responds to the naloxone, to the point where they have to be restrained. The way it's been described is really, it's a miracle drug," he said.

Robert Childs, executive director of the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition, said that of the 137 law enforcement agencies in North Carolina that carry naloxone, "we supplied over half." The coalition has also provided thousands of naloxone kits to people in the community who are "at risk" -- people who use drugs, people who are coming off drugs, and even sex workers, who, even if they don't use drugs themselves, encounter drug use.

"If you give it to the most at-risk people, they use it," Childs said.

Erwin said the most important thing is to have the drug widely available.

"Right now, the heroin epidemic is enormous in North Carolina, so with the epidemic growing the way it is I think you're going to see it deployed a lot more often," Erwin said. "It's a proactive measure. It'd be terrible to respond to a scene and someone has overdosed on drugs ... and the person could have already passed away while you're waiting on EMS."

(c)2017 the News-Topic (Lenoir, N.C.)