PORT ANGELES — Seconds matter in a heroin overdose.
The Port Angeles Police Department is now equipped with an antidote that could save a life when an opioid user overdoses and stops breathing.
The Port Angeles Police Department is the only law enforcement agency on the North Olympic Peninsula that has access to naloxone, Deputy Police Chief Brian Smith said.
A Virginia pharmaceutical company provided Port Angeles police with 64 naloxone auto injectors as part of a scholarship grant.
Naloxone temporarily blocks the effects of opioid drugs like heroin or prescription medication such as Oxycodone. It helps a person who has overdosed breathe easier.
Kaleo, the Richmond, Va., company, supplied the 0.4-milligram doses of Evzio-brand naloxone after Port Angeles police officer Sky Sexton applied for the grant.
“The rising number of overdose deaths from opioid-based prescription drugs and heroin is a major concern for our community,” said Terry Gallagher, chief of the Port Angeles Police Department.
“This new product delivers a potentially life-saving dose of naloxone via a simple to use auto-injector system that is easy to carry and administer to someone experiencing an opioid overdose,” he added.
Hospitals and fire department paramedics regularly administer naloxone intravenously.
Many law enforcement agencies, however, do not have access to the life-saving medication. Law enforcement officers are often the first to arrive to a medical call.
Dr. Tom Locke, Jefferson County public health officer who formerly served in the capacity for Clallam County, advocates law enforcement access to naloxone injectors and public access to naloxone nasal sprays.
“It’s a life-saving strategy for heroin overdose,” Locke said.
“When a person has an overdose on heroin, you have literally minutes to react to that to resuscitate their breathing.”
Since naloxone has virtually no side effects, it can safely be used on a person who is unconscious but has not taken drugs, Locke said.
Nurse Julia Keegan and Dr. Art Tordini, who provide health care to Clallam County jail inmates, helped train nine police officers to use the naloxone injectors March 19.
Another 10 officers were trained on Wednesday, and the rest of the force will be trained and equipped with two naloxone auto injectors in the coming weeks, police said.
The pre-filled, single-use Evzio injectors are administered into a muscle.
“It reverses all the effects of narcotics pretty much immediately,” Tordini said.
Tordini said there is a national trend to provide naloxone to law enforcement.
“It’s coast to coast,” Keegan said.
“It’s finally reaching us out here on the Peninsula.”
Naloxone isn’t just for illicit drug users. The medication also can help, for instance, children who ingest drug-infused suckers and adults who take methadone for pain, Keegan said.
According to state Department of Health statistics, Clallam County had 13 opiate-related deaths in 2013 while Jefferson County had one.
Clallam County had the highest per capita opiate-related death rate in the state that year, health officials said.
While the number of deaths related to prescription opioids — which are produced synthetically while opiates are from natural sources — has dropped in recent years, Locke said there has been an equal rise in the number of deaths related to heroin.
“First responders and police officers are most likely to be on scene first,” Locke said.
The Port Angeles Police Department has four certified emergency medical technicians on staff and 12 automatic defibrillators at its disposal.
Police respond to a “couple overdose calls a week in some fashion,” Smith said.
Jail medical staff treat inmates with opioid withdrawal “every single day,” Keegan said.
Smith said he was introduced to the Kaleo grant at a national law enforcement conference.
He encouraged Sexton, the agency’s medical officer, to apply.
Smith credited Sexton for securing the medication for the department. Keegan and Tordini were instrumental in training officers how to it, Smith said.
“The deployment of naloxone is consistent with our duty to the community and reflects our commitment to recognize best practices in the law enforcement field,” Gallagher said in a news release.
“When lives are on the line, seconds matter.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
