Holder Announces Support for Police Carrying Overdose Reversal Drug

Obama Administration Supports Expanded Use of Opiate Overdose Reversal Drug by Police, Medical Personnel

US Attorney General Eric Holder

(WASHINGTON DC) - The Justice Department today posted a video message on their website encouraging law enforcement professionals to carry naloxone, a drug that safely reverses opiate overdoses, with them at all times. The drug is cheaply available in a nasal spray under the brand name Narcan and those departments that have used it have seen tremendous reductions in the number of overdose deaths in their communities. Seventeen states have already acted to increase the use of naloxone and, together with Good Samaritan laws that ensure those who seek medical help for overdose victims will not be prosecuted, have saved thousands of lives.  

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group of law enforcement officials opposed to the war on drugs, applauded the move, which executive director Major Neill Franklin (Ret.) called “a no-brainer.” The group has advocated for police adopting the approach in the past, despite opposition to all harm reduction measures from the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

“Police may not be the first to embrace change, but we are slowly evolving,” said Lieutenant Commander Diane Goldstein (Ret.) We cannot arrest our way out of a public health problem, and it’s clear that the Attorney General is beginning to understand that and to embrace the role of harm reduction in reducing death, disease and addiction in our communities. We still have a long way to go, but this is a good sign.”

“It is simply immoral not to support something proven to save lives for political reasons,” Franklin added. “Yes, police send a message when they choose not to carry naloxone. But that message is not ‘don’t do drugs,’ it’s ‘if you make the wrong decisions in your life, we don’t care about you.’ That offends me both as a former cop and as a human being.”

News release from LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition)