News

Orange County Sheriff`s deputies armed with opioid overdose antidote

Caitlin Doornbos

07/22/2016

July 22--The Orange County Sheriff's Office joined the area's other law enforcement agencies Thursday in arming its first-responders with devices to save lives in opioid-overdose situations.

Giving the naloxone nasal spray devices to his 700 deputies is a deeply personal step for Sheriff Jerry Demings, who lost his brother at age 50 in 1999 "because of his opioid addiction."

"If you don't have a family member with a drug addiction, you probably know someone who does," Demings said. "This is important to those families."

It cost the Sheriff's Office about $27,000 to outfit all first-responders with the medicine, but Demings said the lifesaving qualities are priceless.

The drug reverses the effects of opioids such as codeine, morphine and heroin, which can cause those who overdose to stop breathing, Demings said.

Orange County is on track in 2016 to surpass the opioid deaths of last year. In 2015, 85 people died of heroin overdose in Orange, Sheriff's Office Lt. Parks Duncan said. As of Thursday, that same number of people have died from heroin or fentanyl overdoses since Jan. 1.

About 30 percent to 40 percent of the time, deputies arrive at the scene of an overdose before medics, Demings said. In those critical moments, it is important to get the antidote into a overdose patient's system as soon as possible.

"Some weeks we see two to three people die [of opioid overdose]," Demings said. "This is about saving lives."

Each nasal spray device contains just one dose. If accidentally given to a person not suffering from an opioid overdose, there are no side effects, Duncan said.

The antidote lasts from 30 to 90 minutes -- enough time to get the person to the hospital for further treatment.

Demings said the $37.50 price of one naloxone dose is a "small cost for us to bear" if it will save a life.

In addition to saving lives, Demings said, naloxone can help deputies fight the distribution of drugs by keeping users alive to tell investigators where they bought their drugs.

"The person whose life is saved can communicate with us, and then we can go after those dealing drugs," Demings said.

With the distribution of the first 25 doses to deputies during a news conference Thursday, the Sheriff's Office joined the University of Central Florida Police Department, the Orlando Fire Department, the Orlando Police Department and Orange County Fire Rescue in outfitting first-responders with the lifesaving drug.

Orlando police have 816 doses of the medicine, and each officer carries one, according to OPD. UCF police received 150 doses last year to equip all 70 of their officers.

Since OPD outfitted its officers with the nasal spray June 15, at least one dose has been used, OPD spokeswoman Wanda Miglio said. Last year, OFD medics used more than 400 doses on patients in urgent overdose situations.

The distribution of naloxone was inspired by a recommendation from the Orange County Heroin Task Force. Law enforcement officials, community leaders and public-health experts started the task force last year in hopes of curbing the county's growing heroin problem.

cdoornbos@orlandosentinel.com or 407-650-6931