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COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — Police officers are frequently the first responders to overdoses, and now one Utah department aims to be the first in the state to equip its officers with a powerful antidote for heroin and other opiates.
Cottonwood Heights police officers trained Friday to carry a Narcan — or naloxone — nasal spray, and were expected to hit the streets with it immediately.
“It’s going to give us the ability to hopefully save lives in the precious moments that people need it the most,” said Sgt. Ryan Shosted. “I think this gives us another tool on our belt that allows us to help people in a significant way.”
Jennifer Plumb, who is from the University of Utah Department of Pediatrics, reminded officers Friday morning that Utah had one of the highest overdose death rates in the country.
“We’re losing a lot more people to overdoses or poisonings than we are to firearms, to falls or to motor vehicle crashes,” Plumb told the group. “We want people to call you guys. We want people to activate 911 when they find an overdose.”
Plumb said the opiate antidote works in one to three minutes.
“Someone goes from not-alive to alive,” Plumb said. “It is very effective; it is very safe; it is very good at what it does. It does not get anybody high. It does not relieve any pain. You cannot overdose on it. It is not addictive. All it does is save lives.”
It wasn’t hard to find families who stand by the effectiveness of naloxone.
Jan Lovett, who serves on the board of Utah Support Advocates for Recovery Awareness, said it brought her daughter back from an overdose.
“Absolutely, 100 percent — it saved her life,” Lovett said. “Had someone not had it — if that EMT had not had it — she would have died. She wouldn’t have been able to have that second chance.”
Amber Riddle, who has been clean for seven years following an addiction to heroin, said somebody gave her Narcan when she overdosed at a house while she was addicted.
“As much as I was doing, you know, it was probably enough to kill a large animal,” Riddle said.
Riddle said she couldn’t recall much about the time before she lost consciousness, but said she remembered a “moment of clarity” in which she felt her time was not done, followed by the moment when she woke up in a panic, feeling withdrawal symptoms.
Plumb said withdrawal symptoms can occur after naloxone is given.
“It definitely saved my life,” Riddle said. “I think anytime someone’s hit with Narcan, it definitely will save their life.”
Both Riddle and Lovett said they saw the move by Cottonwood Heights police to carry naloxone as a positive step.
“I think it could definitely potentially save a lot of lives and give a lot of people another chance to find some kind of help,” Riddle said.
