Special Report: El Paso Police Dept. Struggles With Overdose Drug Narcan
El Paso Matters reports on the use of overdose-stopping drug Narcan, noting that El Paso Police Department officers don't carry doses routinely, even though evidence from other police departments shows its effectiveness in saving lives. Media outlets cover other drug crisis news.
El Paso Matters:
Narcan On Hand (Part 1): EPPD Patrol Officers Don’t Carry Narcan Amid Skyrocketing Overdose Deaths
In the early morning hours of July 23, 2019, two police officers responded to a welfare check at a Northeast El Paso apartment. There, they found an unconscious 21-year-old man, with purple lips and a faint pulse. He had snorted a crushed pill marked “M30,” a counterfeit oxycodone pill containing fentanyl, the officers would later confirm. They called for Fire and Medical Services to come, and then they waited as the man overdosed in front of them. The officers waited because most El Paso Police Department patrol officers do not carry Narcan — a lifesaving medication that reverses opioid overdoses and is increasingly being used by law enforcement personnel around the country. FMS was able to revive the man with Narcan. (Kladzyk, 3/14)
El Paso Matters:
Narcan On Hand (Part 2): How One Police Department’s Narcan Program Saved Hundreds Of Lives
When Officer Dave Hanson trains police officers on how to use Narcan, he starts by showing body camera footage from the first time a Tempe police officer used the medication on a local resident. The grainy video begins with a 23-year-old white man lying face down on a bed. He appears to be dead: silent and still with no visible signs of life. A police officer flips the man onto his back, moves him down to the floor and sprays Narcan into his nostril. Nothing happens, and the officer begins chest compressions on the man for a few minutes, before spraying Narcan into the man’s nostril again. The man begins to move, slowly regaining consciousness. (Kladzyk, 3/15)
El Paso Matters:
Narcan On Hand (Part 3): Despite New Federal Funds, Barriers Remain For Improved Narcan Access At The EPPD
El Paso Police Officer Jose Alvarez was conducting a routine traffic stop in Central El Paso in December 2020 when a security guard flagged him down: a man was unresponsive, lying face down on the ground just blocks away, drug paraphernalia by his side. Alvarez ran over and called for emergency services. He then administered Narcan, reviving the man. Alvarez later received the El Paso Police Department’s life-saving award for the act, an honor the department bestows for successful rescues. (Kladzyk, 3/16)
In related news about the drug crisis —
San Francisco Chronicle:
San Francisco Issues Dire Warning After Spike In Fentanyl Overdoses Among People Using Cocaine
San Francisco health officials issued a dire warning Thursday following what they said was a recent spike in fentanyl overdoses, specifically among people who ingested the powerful opioid when they thought they were using cocaine. Over the past two weeks, the city’s health department said it was alerted to three fatal fentanyl overdoses in San Francisco among people “who intended to use only cocaine but were unintentionally exposed to fentanyl.” The health department also reported nine similar, nonfatal overdoses in two groups of people. There were an estimated 474 deaths from fentanyl in 2021, the health department said. (Whiting, 3/17)
Houston Chronicle:
‘One Pill Can Kill’: Authorities Warn Of Fentanyl’s Dangers In Public Campaign Targeting Houston, State
With fentanyl showing up in Harris County and the state at “an alarming rate,” authorities have launched a public awareness campaign on billboards and elsewhere to warn of the dangers of the synthetic opioid, often sold in counterfeit pills that can contain lethal doses. Representatives of government and public health agencies said at a press conference Thursday that the campaign aims to sound the alarm about the increasing illegal trade and the impact of fentanyl, along with the upward trend of the counterfeit pills. “One pill can kill” and “Fentanyl can kill: The first time could be your last time” are among some of the messages displayed on the billboards. They come as a record number of people are dying from overdoses in Texas, with the fentanyl driving what has been nationally recognized as an epidemic. (Tallet, 3/17)
AP:
California Mother's Conviction For Fetal Death Overturned
A California court has overturned the conviction and 11-year prison sentence of a woman for causing the death of her unborn child through drug use, the state’s top prosecutor said Thursday. A judge in Kings County Superior Court on Wednesday reversed the conviction of Adora Perez, who pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in 2018 to avoid a charge of murder of a fetus. The original murder charge was ordered reinstated. (3/17)
