Don’t make cops responsible for administering Narcan
The heroin epidemic that is gripping our county and state has often been a topic of stories and editorials for this newspaper.
It seems that despite the best efforts of local law enforcement this scourge continues to grow unabated. Besides victimizing the families of heroin addicts, the newer deadlier forms of the drug, fentanyl and carfentanil, are now threatening the lives of the very ones who are on the front lines fighting this battle — police officers.
In a story we reported first on May 14 that has now been picked up by many news media outlets around the nation, a traffic stop almost turned deadly for an East Liverpool patrolman when he happened to get drug residue, believed to be fentanyl, on his shirt. The traffic stop resulted in a search of the vehicle and subsequently two drug arrests. Later, when a fellow officer told him about the residue on his shirt, the officer brushed it off without thinking and soon found himself in the throes of an opiate overdose. The officer had to be treated with four doses of the drug antidote known as naloxone, or Narcan, which probably saved his life.
Many of our Columbiana County police departments do not carry Narcan. Several departments are in the process of obtaining the drug for their employees, but others are resisting the idea of issuing it for administration to the public, saying that they prefer those duties stay with EMTs and paramedics who are specially trained in this area.
We believe that having police administer Narcan to the public is a terrible idea. It needlessly endangers these officers who already jeopardize their lives and well-being nearly every day. It’s bad enough that EMTs, nurses and others in the medical field have to face this threat on a daily basis as part of their jobs without adding police to the list.
Besides, police officers have enough to do already without requiring they begin providing medical services beyond basic CPR. Once you open this door for Narcan, what other medical services will police be required to provide in the future.
Then there is the liability issue. You can almost hear the lawsuits being filed by the families of overdose victims who die while in police custody alleging the officers either improperly administered Narcan or failed to do so quickly enough to save their loved one’s life.
Narcan should be available in police cruisers and at police stations in case the officers themselves accidentally become exposed and overdose, but that’s it.
This may sound heartless, but drug users are purposely exposing themselves to these dangerous illegal substances and are willingly risking the possibility of death. It’s not fair to expect police officers who already place themselves at risk for the public welfare to be further jeopardized by those who choose to engage in this risky behavior.