Pubdate: Mon, 02 Jun 2014
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2014 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Page: A10
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/naloxone

Police and Drugs

GET THIS NEW TOOL

Toronto police should pay close attention to a movement in the United 
States to add a life-saving heroin antidote to the gear carried by 
officers. The drug is called naloxone, and a single injection can 
instantly reverse the effects of an opioid overdose for about 45 
minutes. That's often time enough to move a stricken person to a 
hospital and ensure survival.

Safe, easy to use, easy to carry, effective, and costing only about 
$25 - it's hard to imagine any new piece of police technology more 
worthy of adoption than a naloxone kit.

Consisting of two pre-filled syringes, and two small nasal spray 
vials, such kits have been distributed to front-line officers by 
various police forces across the United States. And acceptance of 
this harm-reduction approach received a big push when the New York 
Police Department announced last week that it would equip almost 
20,000 of its officers with naloxone.

Toronto police need to be mindful of these developments and start 
laying the groundwork for eventual introduction of such kits to those 
who serve and protect this city. As reported by the Star's Jacques 
Gallant, the local force isn't ready to do that yet. But Toronto 
police officials should closely monitor events in New York City and 
respond as soon as the program shows solid results.

That shouldn't take long, given the potential of this treatment. Drug 
overdose is a major killer - one that's getting worse - with the 
Office of the Chief Coroner reporting 578 opioid overdose deaths in 
Ontario in 2012. That's up from 344 four years earlier.

Naloxone works to blunt that toll by short-circuiting the ability of 
heroin and other opioids to halt an overdose victim's breathing. When 
it's injected, or sprayed into the nostrils, naloxone brings instant 
relief. It's used in much the same way that an EpiPen is applied in 
the event of allergic reactions.

Since police officers are sometimes first at the scene of an 
overdose, it makes eminent sense to equip them with what New York 
state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has called a "stunningly 
effective" antidote. Toronto police should keep an open mind and be 
ready to adopt this innovation.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom