February 16, 2015 – Poughkeepsie Journal Nina Schutzman
FISHKILL – Town of Fishkill police — including cadets, age 16 and up — will learn to use the opioid overdose reversal drug Narcan, said Sgt. Christopher Stewart.
Narcan, also known as Naloxone, is a prescription medication that works by temporarily reversing the effects of illicit or prescription opioids. A person has the chance to regain consciousness and breathe normally.
Drug overdoses “happen all the time,” Stewart said. Since prescription pills are becoming harder to access, people are “turning to heroin.”
Cadets are part of the Law Enforcement Explorer program through Boy Scouts of America, which allows 14-to-21-year-olds to get hands-on police training from Fishkill officers, according to the group’s website.
Anyone age 16 and over is allowed to administer Narcan, as long as they’re certified, Stewart said. Eligible Fishkill cadets will become certified Thursday after a training session with Stewart.
Many of Fishkill’s officers, almost all of whom came through the cadet program, will be trained on Feb. 26, Stewart added. The force should be fully equipped with Narcan by March, and the nasal spray atomizer will be kept with the defibrillator in patrol cars.
Locally, drug addiction — in particular, heroin and prescription painkillers — has been declared an epidemic.
Dutchess County lost 34 people to drug overdoses from January through August 2014, according to Journal archives. Final numbers for the entire year are not yet available.
In 2013, 25 of the county’s 79 drug overdose deaths were the result of heroin use or multiple drugs, up from 11 fatal heroin overdoses in 2011, records show.
Narcan has saved over 100 lives since police officers across New York started carrying it 10 months ago, according to a report from the state attorney general’s office.
Since it was enacted in April, the Community Overdose Prevention program, or COP, has distributed $1.8 million worth of antidote kits — more than 27,000 total — to police at the state, county and local levels, the report said. The mid-Hudson region, including Dutchess and Ulster counties, have gotten 1,600 kits. About 15 percent of people who are revived with Narcan go on to seek treatment, said Dutchess County Health Commissioner Dr. Kari Reiber in June, when she helped lead a training session for local police.
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