Nationwide heroin problem leads to local action

Local authorities announced Thursday they are expanding a program allowing more officers to administer an antidote drug to victims of heroin overdoses.

At Centennial Hall in downtown Colorado Springs, officials said the move is necessary to slow a major increase in heroin-related deaths across the country.

Experts said most of the 27,000 Americans who died from drug overdoses in 2014 likely were addicted to heroin, and most of them started with prescription painkillers.

Officials also announced that through an existing public-private partnership, the drug naloxone — commonly known under its trademark of Narcan — will be available at a 40 percent discount to make it easier for law enforcement personnel to acquire.

Pueblo police were the first in the area to use naloxone. Colorado Springs police began carrying it last fall. El Paso County deputies will train and carry it later this year.

“We haven’t had to administer it yet, but we expect to eventually,” said Cmdr. Sean Mandel of the city’s Metro Vice and Narcotics Unit. “Our job is to get heroin off the streets but this drug can help us save lives, too.”

Naloxone is considered a “miracle drug” because it can reverse the effects of a heroin overdose. Officers are trained to administer it as a nasal spray.

The drug has been used by emergency medical personnel for years, but law enforcement officers are now using it because they often arrive at overdose scenes before medical responders.

Police said administering the drug requires only a few hours of training.

“There’s very few things in medicine that are as remarkable as seeing a person wake up after treatment with naloxone,” said Dr. James Terbush, the county’s interim medical director. “They’ll wake up and sometimes even sit up.”

Experts said the heroin epidemic started several years ago as more people became addicted to painkillers and switched to illegal heroin because it’s cheaper and easier to obtain.

Heroin is among the opioid family of drugs, which includes morphine, codeine, Vicodin, OxyContin and Percocet. The drugs are usually taken after trauma, surgery and dental work.

Officials hope Thursday’s announcement will educate people and further reduce overdoses.

“Folks who abuse this drug are sometimes doing so with others who will leave the scene,” said Dave Rose, a county spokesman. “They’ll simply leave the person (behind) and the call sort of comes too late to get help.”

The nasal spray normally costs around $70 per dose, but the discount reduces the cost to $37.50. It’s also available to the public as a prescription drug.

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy is hosting a community forum this week in Knoxville, Tennessee, on the opioid problem.

Narcan is the only federally approved product in nasal spray form that can treat a heroin overdose.