WASHINGTON — More local police officers are being trained to use the overdose-reversal drug naloxone.
“We’ve gone from a few years ago having about 20-some officers [trained] to having 10 times that,” Montgomery County Police Chief Tom Manger said. “We are now up to 200 officers who are carrying this miracle antidote.”
Officers who undergo the training to administer naloxone in Montgomery County volunteer to participate. That impresses both Manger and the victim of an opioid overdose who survived because of naloxone, which is also known by the brand name Narcan.
Christina Geralis of Silver Spring expressed her thanks to the county’s latest training class.
“The Narcan, if it didn’t save me, I wouldn’t be here,” said the 32-year-old. “I wouldn’t have this clean time, and I wouldn’t be raising my son, and I wouldn’t be actually enjoying life.”
“I’m just really grateful that the officers are volunteering to learn how to use it,” Geralis later told reporters.
Manger credited funding from the Montgomery County Police Foundation for expanding the program.
“The Montgomery County Police Foundation has come through for us and purchased the equipment necessary to now outfit up to 200 police officers, and this is going to save lives.”
In recent years, the department has been holding about two training classes a year for volunteers who choose to learn how to administer the drug.
“I’m tired of seeing people die who don’t have to,” said Marvin Address of the Montgomery County Police Foundation.
Talking about potential ways to solve the opioid epidemic, Address said he agrees with Manger that police departments can’t arrest their way out of the problem.
“And I believe you can’t buy your way out of it, but at least we can help subsidize it,” Address said.
Montgomery County has seen a 145 percent increase in the number of opioid overdoses (fatal and nonfatal) in the last four years. In 2017, officers responded to 57 overdoses in which people survived and 69 fatal overdoses.
