San Mateo County Police Need Anti-Overdose Drug, Grand Jury Says

The civil grand jury says law enforcement officers in San Mateo County should start carrying the drug naloxone, also known as Narcan.

Law enforcement officers in San Mateo County should start carrying the drug naloxone, also known as Narcan, to help prevent fatal opioid overdoses, according to a report issued this week by the county's civil grand jury.

Potent synthetic opioids like fentanyl pose a high risk to drug users, members of the public and law enforcement officers alike. In 2016, there were 19 people in San Mateo County who died as a result of exposure to the drug, and more than 1,900 fatalities statewide, according to the report.

Equipping police with naloxone, which can be administered nasally, can save the lives of anyone accidentally exposed to fentanyl through skin contact or inhalation of airborne particles.

Sometimes those victims include law enforcement officers investigating drug cases. Police dogs face some of the same risks, and can also be saved by administering naloxone.

While medical professionals frequently already have access to naloxone, law enforcement officers are frequently the first on scene for opioid overdoses, particularly in sparsely populated areas, according to the 

report.

With roughly an hour of training, officers can administer the drug relatively easily -- and so far more than 35 law enforcement agencies in California have opted to equip their personnel with it.

The grand jury's report indicates that there's a pilot program under development by the San Mateo County Joint Narcotics Task Force, but as of this morning no other law enforcement agencies in the county were training or equipping their personnel to use or carry the life-saving drug.

Thursday afternoon, however, the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office announced that their deputies had undergone the training and would begin carrying Narcan to assist the public and each other.

Sheriff' Carlos Bolanos called it "an important safety tool for my personnel and the community."

June 29, 2018

San Mateo Patch

By California News Wire Services