Keeping first responders safe in the opioid war
Much has been made of the dangers inherent in the new heroin and opioid scourge that is taking a horrific toll on the county, region and nation.
The numbers – both of those lost and those saved by the miracle overdose-reversing drug Narcan – are testament to just how bad the situation is.
Through the first 10 months of 2017, Delaware County recorded 185 drug-related deaths, with 162 of those deaths being opioid-related. Increasingly, the presence of fentanyl is leading to death. It was present in 113 of the opioid deaths. Across the state, a study indicated fentanyl was detected in half of the state’s overdose deaths in 2016.
And it’s not just here in Delaware County. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 89 people die every day from an opioid-related overdose in the U.S. The fentanyl death rate has doubled in just one year from 2015 to 2016, according to the CDC. They also point to Pennsylvania as being among the highest incidence areas for opioid-related abuse and overdose.
Those numbers would be much higher it not for Narcan and David’s Law, named for Delaware County resident David Massi, who lost his battle with addiction and died of an overdose. The legislation was pushed by families, antidrug activists, elected officials and law enforcement personnel. The county led the way in getting Narcan in the hands of police and first responders.
Last week a special banquet was held to celebrate the second chance and to allow those revived – literally saved from death’s door – in the midst of an overdose to thank the first responders who administered the life-saving drug.
Narcan has been used to save 921 lives.
But there is another aspect – one growing each day – that has not been as evident.
This business of responding and saving victims of an overdose gets a little bit riskier each day for police and first responders.
That’s because the substances involved are getting deadlier. Heroin today is often cut with powerful substances such as fentanyl and carfentanil, which can put a first responder’s life in jeopardy with just a tiny contact with the skin.
Wednesday at the Haverford Police Station, county officials rolled out their newest weapon in the war on opioid abuse, this one meant to protect those first responders who now could be putting their life on the line while investigating and testing suspected deadly drugs.
The county rolled out something called the Progeny ResQ analyzer. The handheld device isn’t cheap – one of them runs about $50,000 – but what it does could prove invaluable in protecting officers and first responders.
The hand-held device utilizes a laser to quickly analyze a substance and can detect the presence of the two biggest threats out there today, when drugs such as heroin have been cut with the powerful painkiller fentanyl and even the elephant tranquilizer carfentanil. In total it can detect as many as 13,000 different chemicals and controlled substances. In addition to its use in the war on drugs, the laser also can be used to detect explosives.
These drugs are so powerful that officers are in danger of a possible overdose if they so much as come in contact with it or inhale it. Luckily, no such overdoses have been recorded in Delaware County. Other areas in the region have not been so lucky, with problems being reported when of f icers have come in contact with these dangerous substances.
District Attorney Jack Whelan also announced that officers will no longer field test suspected heroin because of the new prevalence of these powerful additives, which are pushing the fatal overdose rate higher. He also displayed special gloves and masks that the county will push to make sure that all police cars in the county be equipped with to further protect officers.
And the move will come without cost to county taxpayers. Funding for the analyzers will come from the county’s drug forfeiture funds.
“There’s nothing more important than the safety of our officers on the street and today is about making them safer,” Whelan said. The event was the latest push by the county Heroin Task Force, which Whelan set up years ago in the wake of the exploding heroin crisis.
Increasingly, it’s not just the users who are at risk.
Now, police and first re- sponders are in harm’s way, due to the powerful additives that are increasingly showing up in the heroin flooding our streets.
Just last month officials in Montgomery County seized a huge cache of fentanyl.
We’ve identified the problem. We’re helping the victims. We’re even bringing many of them back from death’s door.
Now we’re looking to protect the officers in an increasingly dangerous battle.
If it saves even one, this $50,000 gadget will be worth every penny.