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Obama Administration Urges Cops To Help Save Lives By Treating Heroin Overdoses [View all]
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:
- more -
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/02/11/3279991/obama-administration-naloxone/
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:
- more -
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/02/11/3279991/obama-administration-naloxone/
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