Idaho Falls Police Department Sgt. Jessica Marley was responding to a call in July when she saved a man from overdosing.
“There were no other officers available because we were just running from call to call,” Marley said. “We were short-staffed and very busy, so (officer Jose Abreo) and I volunteered to go to the call. Because we were already in our cars, we were able to get there before paramedics arrived.”
When Marley arrived, a man was on the floor struggling to breathe. His friends said he had used heroin. It was not the man’s first time overdosing, they said. He had previously been taken to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center for an overdose.
Luckily, police had a treatment immediately available. Marley instructed Abreo to grab his standard issued Narcan nasal spray.
“Within three minutes he started to wake up,” Marley said. “He felt like nothing had ever happened.”
Naloxone, often referred to by its brand name Narcan, is an overdose treatment medication that can save the life of someone who has overdosed on opioids.
The medicine is carried by every law enforcement officer in the Idaho Falls Police Department and the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office, as well as paramedics. The police department began to carry it in February. Marley is the first and so far only Idaho Falls Police Officer who has administered it. Typically paramedics give the medicine, and according to Idaho Falls Fire Department Spokeswoman Kerry Hammon, they’ve had to do so 73 times
Naloxone works by blocking receptors in the patient’s brain, dulling the effects of opioids. It lasts for an hour, and the patient may still need to see a doctor and receive multiple doses, depending on the amount of drugs they consumed.
Narcan is not a new tool in the war on drugs. It was patented in 1961 and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1971.
Narcan made the news in 2017 when Walgreens and CVS Pharmacy announced they would sell the nasal spray over the counter in states where a subscription isn’t required.
“By stocking Narcan in all our pharmacies, we are making it easier for families and caregivers to help their loved ones by having it on hand in case it is needed,” Rick Gates, Walgreens group vice president of pharmacy, said in a news release at the time of the announcement. “As a pharmacy we are committed to making Narcan more accessible in the communities we serve.”
The medicine has become essential during the opioid epidemic. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates three out of five drug-related deaths involve opioids, and that more than 130 people die every day from opioid overdoses nationally.
The nasal spray is easily administered, and patients typically react within minutes.
“It’s like somebody coming back from the dead,” IFPD officer Blaine Reed said. Reed has not had to administer the drug, but he has seen paramedics use it while responding to overdose calls.
Marley said Idaho Falls sees daily overdoses and said she could think of instances where access to the drug might have saved a life. She warned, however, that despite the seemingly miraculous results of Narcan, it isn’t a fix for the epidemic.
“It’s not a cure. It doesn’t fix that person’s addiction or fix any of the other addictions that the country is facing,” Marley said. “It simply wakes them up from that one overdose that they had. It doesn’t negate the fact that they need treatment and they need to stop using heroin or any other narcotics that they’re using.”