Is Narcan changing attitudes?
The anti-opiod drug hasnt stopped the epidemic but it has made some think
THE GROWING popularity of the anti-opioid drug naloxone, also known as Narcan, has had no effect on heroin and prescription pain-pill abuse, but it has affected the police officers who have administered it to save a life.
Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said last year that his officers saved 54 people with Narcan, including a 29-year-old man whom they saved twice, just two months apart. Another man, 40, whom Upper Darby cops saved with Narcan on April 16, couldn't be saved when he overdosed again four days later.
"Even though Narcan saves lives, it does nothing for the addiction and there's no mandatory treatment," Chitwood said. "You save them at 9 o'clock and they're using heroin again at 2 o'clock."
What has changed since cops started carrying Narcan is officers' attitudes toward drug addicts, Chitwood said.
"It went from 'Why do I have to save a drug addict?' to 'I'll do anything to save a drug addict,' so Narcan has produced that effect in law enforcement," Chitwood said. "The majority of men and women who get into police work do it to save people, and this saves people."
Nobody knows that better than Ridley Township Police Officer Shawn McGee, who was the first cop in the state to save someone with Narcan. Since that day in November 2014, McGee estimates, he's saved four or five more people with Narcan.
"It's nice to actually go to these calls and be able to do something," he said. "It's huge for me because I care about my job, but it's huge for the family because they immediately see the people they rely on doing something to help their loved ones."