The Butler County, Ohio sheriff is standing by his decision not to let deputies carry Narcan, a drug used to revive opioid users who overdose.
“I don’t do Narcan,” Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones told The Cincinnati Inquirer on Thursday.
“They never carried it,” he said of his deputies. “Nor will they. That’s my stance.”
Amid a nationwide opioid crisis, Ohio’s Butler County in particular has suffered substantially. Butler witnessed a record 192 drug overdose deaths in 2016 and is currently on pace to shatter that statistic in 2017. Its coroner’s office saw 96 fatal overdoses during the first three months of the year, including 80 involving opiates, officials announced recently.
Yet while deputies in surrounding Clermont, Hamilton and Warren counties all carry Narcan, Butler’s top cop said he’s opposed to following suit.
“There’s no law that say [sic] police officers have to carry Narcan,” he told NBC News on Friday. “Until there is, we’re not going to use it.”
Using Narcan, according to the sheriff, is neither an effective nor affordable way for Butler to counter the opioid crisis.
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13 comments:
I agree with him 100%. Even though it is a tragedy that people overdose and die, reviving them with NARCAN only postpones the inevitable unless they voluntarily enter treatment (very rare). There are many stories of LEOs having to revive the same people over and over.
There are also liability issues, as some of these people go berserk as they revive, according to LEOs I have spoken with.
Bad idea- his own deputies are at risk and should carry it in case one of them or even a K9 is exposed to heroin, fentanl or carfentanyl. The amount as small as a grain of salt of fentanyl or carfentanyl can be fatal.
10:39 Is correct.
These heroin addicts keep chasing the high that they got the first time they tried the drug and it takes ever increasing doses to do it. Narcan temporarily interrupts the inevitable overdose so they addict can just have a bigger overdose later.
Blogger Shadow said...
Bad idea- his own deputies are at risk and should carry it in case one of them or even a K9 is exposed to heroin, fentanl or carfentanyl. The amount as small as a grain of salt of fentanyl or carfentanyl can be fatal.
July 10, 2017 at 11:12 AM
I agree with you. People seem to have forgotten about that LEO that overdosed by simply brushing off a drug from his uniform. Luckily, it happened inside of his office building and Narcan was administered, THREE TIMES.
If he had been anywhere else, or they didn't have the Narcan, he would be dead today.
People with their high moral judgments are always seeking to punish the lesser of us.
You sir have no clue how opiate/opioids work within the body. This is not a 1990's dare ad where users continue to chase the dragon forever. Please get an education about the physical and psychological effects of said narcotic before giving another uneducated opinion.
218
So what are the physical and psychological effects? And how would they make the comment earlier wrong? I know what the effects are, and I am in a line of work where I have seen many times where the same person has been revived multiple times by ems locally. Don't really feel sorry for them by the second time, as you can't help the stupid. Unless you can enlighten us further with your wisdom, I would say you're the uneducated one. But you keep crying for these idiots who try heroin for the first time, apparently never having heard of the drug or its effects on people. Unless they happen to accidentally fall down and land on a dose of heroin that happen to be on the ground, I don't feel for them at all.
July 10, 2017 at 5:01 PM
Then maybe you should change your line of work.
I agree as well. At least have it available and the education to know the signs of an overdose and how to use narcan in case of LEO contact or what if they get to a location of a child that has come in contact with the drug.
5:01: Your ignorance regarding the disease of addiction is part of the larger problem of our current epidemic. It is a progressive disease and some people are pre-disposed to become addicts. It may start with a beer, then pot and so on. It is highly unlikely that addicts start with heroin. My point is that these addicts are wired to get more and progress to harder drugs. Understand they are wired differently than you. Blame drug dealers not the addicts. They profit off the misery of the addicts condition. Addicts don't want to be addicts. Educate yourself on the matter before spouting off.
Not a disease, its a choice. If you start with beer, you make a conscious effort to be an alcoholic if that's how you start. And you're dumber then originally thought. Yes drug dealers are a problem, but educate yourself on supply and demand. Its like blaming Ford that I like driving.
Nobody knows they will are on a path to addiction after having a beer- we aren't born with our DNA and predispositions written on our sleeves. Your Ford analogy is just moronic.
Shadow
You just made my point moron. Thank you for that. With your DNA and predisposition comment, youre basically saying one makes a conscious decision to over use a legal substance, or decide that legal isn't strong enough to get high any more and go to something stronger. So how about this analogy? If some heroin user breaks into your house and steals your tv, are you going to blame Samsung for making a good product? And EVERYONE knows heroin is bad before using it, so again, thank you for making my point.
I did not make your point. The only point you have is on top of your head in the form of a dunce cap.
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