Deputies with the Pima County Sheriff's Department will start carrying a life-saving nasal spray that treats opioid overdoses this year.
The sheriff's department says all deputies will carry Narcan in their first-aid kit. They'll also get training on how to spot an opioid overdose and how to use the spray.
The Arizona Department of Health Services is providing the spray at no cost to the sheriff's department. It recently launched a big media campaign targeted to young people on the danger of abusing opioids.
The health department says there have been over 15,000 suspected opioid overdoses since June 2017, and about 14 percent of those resulted in death. Twenty-five to 34-year-olds are the most likely to overdose.
Pima County was one of the few law enforcement agencies in the region that did not carry the anti-overdose spray in a survey by the Star over the summer.
It said then that since paramedics responding to medical emergencies already carry naloxone, thereβs little need for sheriffβs deputies to carry it, too. And that they were concerned the FDA-approved drug would degrade in the heat of their patrol cars and render it ineffective.
