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Thursday, July 14, 2016

Curing Our Coast: Demand Grows For Overdose Life Saving Remedy

(Editor’s Note: The following represents the latest installment in an ongoing series diving into the issues associated with drug addiction across the lower shore.)

BERLIN — An officer with the Worcester County Criminal Enforcement Team walks swiftly up to Worcester County Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Nate Passwaters driver’s side window at the Maryland State Police Barracks in Berlin to give an update on a heroin overdose call he had just returned from in northern Worcester County.

“He lived,” said the officer. “His buddy gave him Narcan, so by the time we got there he was awake, but he refused treatment and they flushed all the stuff.”

Passwaters shakes his head in a way that almost simultaneously expresses relief and frustration. He later admits that he gets news like this almost daily.

“He’s probably going to use again tonight, but at least he’s not dead today,” he said.

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe we should let the chips fall where they may. He OD's he's gone.
If you supply him with this treatment he will do it over and over until he's dead anyway.

Anonymous said...

This illustrated the problem beautifully..

Taxpayer-funded enabling.

Anonymous said...

The pre-measured dose devices are extremely expensive, not the cheap $40 that is sold in Drug Stores. Taxpayers are getting hit with the $3000 to $4000 per dose, that EMT's and other first responders administer. Is a drug addicts life worth this kind of expenditure, sometimes over and over again and again?

Anonymous said...

I call B.S. let them go. Social Darwinism.

Anonymous said...

All this Narcan stuff is doing is enabling addicts to use with a sense of security. This is something I said over and over on this site and some said I didn't know what I was talking about. I do know what I am talking about. I've read in some other areas for awhile now that dealers are even selling and being caught selling Narcan kits to users to have on hand. It is not an answer because the public suffers. Addicts are free to use which means they will go on stealing and whatever else they do to get money to buy the drugs.

Anonymous said...

Complete waste of time and money. They made a choice and should live with it, or not. How long are they going to fight a never ending, unwinnable battle? They lock one dealer up qnd another steps right into his spot.

Anonymous said...

My question is this - Why lock up the Dealer when the user/buyer doesn't get locked up? The buyer/user gets a free life saving treatment and gets to walk the streets! Both broke the law! So why punish one and save the other? Punish them both! Let them go through the withdraw symptoms behind bars!

Anonymous said...

This is a product for users of heroin.
It should not be provided by the government who is importing heroin into the country. The government needs the revenue to fund intelligence and military black operations. Save the money. Let the user buy their own.

Anonymous said...

I clicked on this comment section just to see the ignorant remarks I knew would be posted. I was not disappointed. The uninformed, uneducated bigots are everywhere. Perhaps we should just let them die should they ever be stricken with a potentially fatal disease.