Obama Administration Urges Cops To Help Save Lives By Treating Heroin Overdoses

[ProSense]

Obama Administration Urges Cops To Help Save Lives By Treating Heroin Overdoses

By Tara Culp-Ressler

On Tuesday, the Obama administration encouraged law enforcement officials across the country to start carrying naloxone, a drug that can reverse overdoses from heroin and prescription pain killers. Naloxone helps an individual remain breathing even after they’ve introduced a high level of opioids to their system.

Naloxone has been used in emergency departments for years. But since police officers are often the first on the scene when an individual is overdosing, equipping them with naloxone can be a critical method of expanding early access to the lifesaving prescription drug. Gil Kerlikowske, the director of the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, first began calling for the widespread use of the overdose reversal drug back in 2012.

On a conference call on Tuesday, Kerlikowske reiterated that position — and noted that combating the rise of drug overdose deaths requires a serious public health response, not necessarily a criminal justice crackdown. “We cannot arrest our way out of the drug problem,” Kerlikowske explained. “Drug addiction is a disease of the brain — a disease that can be prevented, treated, and from which one can recover.”

A handful of states have already begun to expand police officers’ and first responders’ access to naloxone, a trend that the White House is encouraging more states to continue. Allowing cops to carry nalaxone is most effective when coupled with “Good Samaritan” laws, which ensure criminal protection for the people seeking medical help for someone who’s at risk of overdosing. Not every state has that combination on the books yet, though:

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http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/02/11/3279991/obama-administration-naloxone/

[RainDog]

1. k&r n/t

[ProSense]

2. Kick! n/t

[freshwest]

3. They need more training to deal with people in crisis if they are the ones that are called instead

of mental health professionals. The system has too many holes in too many areas and the cops are not trained to deal with any situation that is not a crime, in many areas. The mentally ill and intellectually challenged have their actions mistaken for criminal ones by the public and law enforcement. We need what used to be called community mental health offices to intervene first. But this is a step to save lives and a good response to those who have lobbied for this segment of our people who need help for this.

[rustydog]

4. Police might be the first contact because they pull over the driver hauling-ass for the ER

with the overdosed buddy in the back seat.
It happens more often than people think and the sooner you get Narcan into the person, the better.

Of course, once you have injected Narcan, odds are the fight is on.

[freshwest]

5. Thanks, that is encouraging. I haven't had to take a person to ER for a long time. I suspect much of

the public thinks all of these overdoses are private and there is no one nearby that really cares enough to do that. That they are forgotten.

So the idea of them carrying this is even more useful. That information heartens me to think this is how these things are going down. That more people care than the media portrays this.

[ProSense]

7. Yeah, whatever training they need should be provided. n/t

[Cha]

6. Wow.. bless their activism

hearts, Pro!