Lacey police to start carrying overdose-reversing drug

Police in Lacey will soon carry naloxone, a lifesaving medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.

Officers were trained to administer naloxone last week and will start carrying it in the coming weeks, said Lacey police Sgt. Jaime Newcomb.

He said officers could use naloxone to treat people who overdose if officers arrive before paramedics. It could also be used on officers who come into contact with powerful synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and carfentanil.

Law enforcement officers and paramedics across the country have been sickened after exposure to these drugs.

“We obviously encounter (overdoses) on a weekly basis. The exposure to fentanyl, we have not had a documented case in our department, but it’s getting out in front of it before something happens, God forbid,” Newcomb said.

Each police car will have a kit with two doses. Kits cost $75 and the department ordered 48 kits for a total of $3,600.

Thurston County Sheriff’s deputies already carry naloxone, while the Olympia Police Department plans to equip officers with it soon.

The training for Lacey officers came days after a 31-year-old Lacey man died of an overdose.

Kyle Brinton died Oct. 7. According to a GoFundMe page for his family, Brinton had been clean for more than two years.

“He didn’t want to die, he was so excited to be a dad,” Brinton’s fiancee, Brittany Johnson, told KIRO before a candlelight vigil in his honor last week. The couple was expecting a baby in April.

According to KIRO, the Lacey Police Department will be the 30th law enforcement agency in the state to carry naloxone.

This story was originally published October 17, 2017 at 12:50 PM with the headline "Lacey police to start carrying overdose-reversing drug."