By Police1 Staff
QUINCY, Mass. — The Quincy police have become the first department in the country to require their officers to carry an opiate overdose-preventing nasal spray with them on duty.
Officer Ryan Donnelly has reversed eight overdoses before paramedics arrived using Narcan, or naloxone hydrochloride, since the start of the program, according to CBS. Narcan reverses an overdose by blocking the narcotic’s ability to attach to brain cells, allowing normal breathing to resume within one to three minutes.
Veteran narcotics detective Patrick Glynn, who oversees the program in Quincy, makes sure at least two doses of Narcan are in every squad.
“We changed our philosophy,” Glynn said. “It’s just a simple change where we decided that we cannot arrest our way out of this epidemic.”
About 200 officers in Quincy are trained to use the antidote, according to the report.
The department has seen a 95 percent success rate using Narcan since they began using it in 2010.
According to CBS, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy is working to encourage other police departments to carry Narcan.