News

N.C. Public Safety Officers to Begin Carrying Naloxone This Week

Wes Wolfe

07/08/2015

July 08--As addicts moved from oxycodone to heroin, deaths skyrocketed.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heroin-related overdose deaths rose 286 percent between 2002 and 2013, especially accelerating beginning with a spike in 2010.

Public safety agencies are adopting the drug naloxone, both in its generic form and as the brand name Narcan, to counteract the effects of opioid overdoses and save lives.

Kinston Department of Public Safety officers began carrying naloxone kits Thursday.

"What it is, every officer in our agency has received training on administering naloxone ... and all officers have a kit in their car so they can administer it if they respond to an opiate overdose," KDPS Sgt. Scott Jackson said. "When we arrive on the scene, and we have an overdose of an opiate or heroin-type derivative, then we can administer it to help try and bring them out of the overdose."

Lenoir County Emergency Services initiated the program in the county, which is part of a statewide effort.

"They received a grant for the purchase, and they contacted all the agencies in Lenoir County -- us, the Lenoir County Sheriff's Office and the Pink Hill Police Department -- about participating, and we were all on board," Jackson said.

Similar programs have seen success in other parts of the country. For instance, the same day the kits when into action in Lenoir County, EMTs with the Stamford, Conn., fire department made their first save.

"On arrival, the patient was determined to be unconscious and not breathing," according to a statement by SFD Capt. Philip Hayes. "Fire department EMTs quickly performed lifesaving artificial respirations and administered a dose of Narcan. Within a few minutes the patient started to breathe on his own, and began to regain consciousness. The Stamford EMS medic unit arrived on scene and continued life-saving care."

Another save Thursday, according to the Cliffview Pilot in New Jersey, came when a Lodi, N.J. police officer responded to a woman passed out next to syringes and empty heroin bindles who was able to be revived and taken to the nearby hospital. It was the LPD's fifth life-saving application of the antidote this year.

And in Lake County, Ill., there were five heroin overdoses during the July 4 weekend. Each person survived.

"If there was no such thing as naloxone, we would have had five deaths over the weekend," said Bill Gentes of the Lake County Underage Drinking and Drug Prevention Task Force to the Lake County News-Sun.