Wisc. Local Departments Want to Equip Cops with Naloxone

Oct. 28--To address a rising tide of drug overdoses, many of them involving heroin, Dane County's two largest law enforcement agencies want to equip their personnel with a potentially life-saving medication.

Madison police will train their patrol sergeants next month in how to administer naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan, which can reverse an overdose from opiates such as heroin or oxycodone in minutes.

And on Monday, Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney said he too wants to implement a local naloxone program, "before too many more lives are lost."

As heroin and opiate drug abuse has grown in recent years, officials across Wisconsin have put an emphasis on getting anti-overdose medication into the hands of as many potential first responders as possible -- from firefighters and police to the parents and friends of drug users.

Stories abound from authorities about users found unresponsive and not breathing in parked cars or restaurant bathrooms, only to be revived with a shot of naloxone. Madison Police Chief Mike Koval credits the drug with saving scores of lives in his city alone.

"We have people overdosing on a weekly basis," police spokesman Joel DeSpain said. Sometimes, he said, officers will respond to multiple overdoses in a single night.

"All of us see this as something that's important," he said.

Police are often the first to reach the scenes of potential drug overdoses, DeSpain said, and will start resuscitation efforts while they wait for paramedics to arrive with naloxone.

In November, the department will train 35 sergeants from its patrol division to give the medication themselves, police said.

The sergeants will then hit the streets with a nasal form of Narcan, something many departments prefer over administering it via a needle.

Kits of the nasal medication are not cheap, however, running between $22 and $60 apiece, according to a toolkit on the medication put out by the federal Bureau of Justice Assistance. If they're not used in 18 to 24 months, the kits will expire and need to be replaced.

Koval said the department will pay $30 for each of its kits.

The Sheriff's Office is looking into a similar program, spokeswoman Elise Schaffer said, though it is still in the early stages of planning how it would equip deputies with the medication. Still, Mahoney expressed his support for a local program for law enforcement in a statement Monday.

"It makes a lot of sense for us to explore the implementation of the naloxone toolkit here in Dane County," he said.

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