Metro Nashville Police Equip Officers with Opioid Antidote

The Metro Nashville Police Department will outfit its officers with the opioid antidote Narcan.

The department has received 790 Narcan kits on June 30 for just under $60,000. Each kit contains two 4 mg doses of the drug in nasal spray applicators.

“The Medical Examiner’s Office tells us that, during the first five months of this year alone, at least 87 deaths were related to opiates or opioids,” Chief Steve Anderson said. “That figure underscores the necessity of our officers carrying Naloxone as they answer calls for service and conduct investigations across the city. The medication will also help protect our personnel who may unwittingly come into contact with these dangerous substances.”

Narcan is the brand name for Naloxone, which is a prescription medication that displaces opioids from the receptors in the brain that control those functions. Opioids depresses activity of the central nervous system and can result in respiratory failure.

Mt. Juliet recently equipped its police department officers with Naloxone nasal spray.

http://wkrn.com/2017/08/11/metro-nashville-police-equip-officers-with-opioid-antidote/