Successful rollout of potentially life-saving antidote

The rollout of a potentially life-saving antidote has already resulted in the reversal of 19 overdoses.

Officers with Northumbria Police’s Neighbourhood Policing Teams (NPT) and Response Policing Teams (RPT) first started carrying naloxone in November last year.

Naloxone is a nasal spray which can serve as an emergency antidote for overdoses caused by heroin and other opiates or opioids, such as fentanyl, methadone and morphine.

Officers are often the first responders to an incident, and those who have been specially trained to recognise any suspected symptoms of opioid overdose are able to quickly administer naloxone.

The spray causes no harm to an individual who is mistakenly believed to have taken opioids.

Naloxone was first administered on a 26-year-old man in the Newcastle area on December 23 last year, and has been successfully utilised a further 18 times.

Chief Inspector Rob Bosson, of Northumbria Police, said:

The results since the Force rolled out the use of naloxone have been hugely positive.

We have already seen 19 uses, which I see as 19 lives saved, with the spray helping to restore a person’s breathing and buying more time for medical intervention by ambulance and hospital teams.”

However, it is crucial to stress that naloxone is not considered the solution to drug-related incidents in our communities, and we continue to work with our combatting drugs partnership to reduce these associated harms.

We remain steadfast in our commitment to tackling this form of criminality which often preys upon the most vulnerable members of our communities.