Canfield Police officers to get Narcan kits, training

Staff report

CANFIELD

City police will obtain and be trained in the use of a drug that reverses an overdose on opiates.

Police Chief Chuck Colucci said the department will get fewer than 10 Narcan kits, a trade name for naloxone, which the Cardinal Joint Fire District has carried since the mid-1990s.

“It’s been over the last several years where law enforcement has recognized that heroin addiction has become an epidemic, and with heroin addiction, unfortunately, comes potential for overdose,” Colucci said. “It’s not just heroin. It’s heroin or any opiate addiction, including painkillers or any pain medication.”

Colucci said his department was able to get the kits through the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. Officers will be trained sometime this fall or winter by the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office on how to use them.

He expects that training to take one day if all his officers are able to attend in one day.

Naloxone is a nasal spray that helps to combat an overdose by improving the low levels of respiration a person experiences while suffering from an overdose.

Officers will check out a kit, like any other gear, at the beginning of their shift and check it back in at the end of shifts. If the kit stays in the patrol cruisers, “it cuts the shelf-life in half,” Colucci said. The shelf-life of the Narcan drug is two years.