Pubdate: Tue, 19 Aug 2014
Source: Webster Post (NY)
Copyright: 2014 Gatehouse Media, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.websterpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5521
Author: Aaron Curtis

COUNTIES AWAIT ANTI-HEROIN-OD KITS

Canandaigua, N.Y.

CANANDAIGUA - The Ontario County Board of Supervisors' Public Safety
Committee has voted to accept funds for training and equipping
deputies with Naloxone, an antidote to overdoses from heroin and other
opiates.

Ontario County Sheriff Phil Povero asked the committee to reserve
$5,640, made available through a New York state grant that would
reimburse the costs associated with 94 Naloxone kits ordered by the
county.

In July, the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution that
allows trained deputies to carry Naloxone, the medication that can
reverse an opiate-related overdose. The medication is administered to
a person in the form of a nasal mist.

The state Department of Health's Opioid Prevention Program, passed in
2006, was developed in an attempt to combat overdose-related deaths,
as the prevalence of opiate use increases across the state and nation.
The law made it legal for non-medical personnel to carry Naloxone,
making its use by law enforcement possible. State Attorney General
Eric Schneiderman's office sent letters to law enforcement urging them
to utilize the program and "fight this destruction."

"Police officers, in many cases, are the first to reach the scene,"
Povero said. "So we hope to see a positive outcome (as a result of
this legislation)."

The attorney general invited county lawmakers to reserve the
reimbursement funds, composed of $5 million. The fund was made
possible by seized crime proceeds, according to the attorney general's
office.

The resolution accepting the funds will be up for a vote by the full
Board of Supervisors meeting, set for 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug.
21, at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, 630 W.
North St., Geneva.

According to Schneiderman's letter to law enforcement personnel, drug
overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S. for
people ages 25 to 64, with more than 40 percent of those deaths
attributed to opioid analgesics. And the Department of Justice website
states that there has been an increase of 320 percent of heroin seized
at the southwestern U.S. border from 2008 to 2013.

"Heroin overdose deaths nationwide increased 55 percent from 2000 to
2010," Schneiderman added. "Here in New York state it was reported
that opioid overdoses killed 2,051 people in 2011, more than twice the
number in 2004."

Povero said that heroin use has become a "national epidemic" as the
drug flows into the country at heavier volumes.

"It's a bad drug to get yourself messed up with," said Yates County
Sheriff Ronald Spike. "It's ruined a lot of lives and it's killing
people."

Yates and Wayne counties also have made the decision to equip law
enforcement agencies with Naloxone, while Monroe County has plans in
the works to use the medication.

Spike said that Yates County is more than ready to use the Naloxone
kits, which have yet to be shipped to law enforcement agencies by the
state.

"We're seeing an increase in it just like everybody else,"Spike said.
"It's something we need to address to save lives."

Spike said that over the last year, the Yates sheriff's department has
dealt with six heroin-related overdoses.

"The deaths that we have seen when we arrive at the scene, the
individual still has a needle in the arm," Spike said.

He added that there was a recent arrest of a driver who was stopped in
the county after leaving Rochester. An eventual K-9 search of the
vehicle turned up 90 bags of heroin hidden in the car's center
console. Cocaine was also found in the vehicle.

According to Spike, opioid prescription medications - including
Oxycontin, Opana and Vicodin - were more common prior to the heroin
epidemic, but with programs like the Prescription Drug Take-Back
Program being initiated, those pills have become more rare and expensive.

"There's always been drug abuse around for a certain amount of the
population, but heroin is more affordable," Spike said. 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jo-D