Police issue Naloxone kits to front-line officers
Ottawa police will spend $200,000 to outfit nearly half of their officers with naloxone kits this year — a cost that police chiefs in Ontario want the province to cover.
On Tuesday, the provincial government announced an additional $222 million worth of funding to fight the opioid crisis.
The largest chunk of that money will go toward long-term help for addicts. An additional $70 million will go toward support programs for chronic opioid users. Another $15 million will go toward training health-care workers on prescribing opioids more safely, in the hopes of preventing addiction.
The provincial funding does include plans to increase naloxone distribution, but there were no immediate details on whether any of that money would go to police, who along with paramedics and firefighters can be the first on the scene of potentially fatal overdoses.
Local police — dealing with a city opioid epidemic that’s seen fatal fentanyl overdoses from the downtown core all the way to the suburban limits of Ottawa — made the decision to distribute the anti-overdose medicine to officers.
“We continue to see an increase in the amount of fentanyl and counterfeit drugs in our community,” Chief Charles Bordeleau said Wednesday. “Officers are increasingly involved in calls where people are in overdose and medical interventions are required.”
To date, there has been only one case of an Ottawa officer administering naloxone. The victim was “revived by the medication,” Bordeleau said.
The officer was able to recognize the signs of opioid use and quickly take action. Part of the force’s costs ensure that officers have training to deal with an overdose, which is a medical issue.
Four months ago, the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police asked the province to fund the purchase of naloxone for all police officers in Ontario.
Bordeleau said it’s his understanding “that the province has not yet responded to that request.”
The Ottawa police-purchased kits have been issued to all officers “who could encounter opioid exposure situations as part of their regular duties,” Bordeleau said.
That includes all frontline officers who deal with the public on police service calls and officers in the drug and street crime units, who typically seize drugs and do warrant searches of vehicles and properties.
It totals about 600 officers who are trained to use naloxone on themselves and the public.
Bordeleau said that number is expected to increase as more officers undergo the training required to administer naloxone.