Bill would give law enforcement access to naloxone

Nacogdoches Police Chief Jim Sevey said his sleepy town of 34,000 is in the cross hairs of the opioid epidemic.

Lately, his K-9 units have busted more shipments of drugs, mostly heroin, through the East Texas town. He's seen an increasing amount of theft, and most recently, a pair of pharmacy break-ins in which burglars took off with hoards of prescription medications like oxycodone.

Sevey admits it's surprised him. The town doesn't have an interstate highway, an airport or a rail system.

"We are pretty much cut off from the rest of the world," he said. "For a town of our size, we are seeing a lot of narcotics, most of it is opioid-based."

On Monday, the head of his street crimes unit approached him asking to equip his officers with naloxone, a medication that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose — often referred to by its brand name, Narcan.

Sevey approved an order for 10 single-dose units of the drug, despite the high cost.

"My No. 1 priority is to protect my own people. That’s why I want Narcan right now," he said of the decision to dish out the money. "With that said, we are running into more and more opioids, and although we haven’t had any overdoses that would have required Narcan, I feel like it’s going to happen in the near future just because of the quantity that we are starting to pick up on right now."

Police departments across the state have become increasingly concerned about officers' exposure to fentanyl, a synthetic opioid about 50 times stronger than heroin that they say can cause adverse reactions just by breathing it in. This, coupled with an increasing number of opioid overdoses, has prompted many of them to equip their officers with naloxone despite its high cost.

A Houston lawmaker wants to make it easier for law enforcement departments to access the drug.

Sen. Joan Huffman last week filed Senate Bill 340 to create a grant program by which peace officers, evidence technicians and other law enforcement personnel could obtain naloxone at no cost. They would be required to show how often they respond to opioid overdoses or are exposed to opioids on the job, according to the bill, and show receipt of purchase of the medication after funds are distributed.

Huffman, a Republican lawmaker who serves as vice chair of the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice, did not return repeated calls this week to talk about the legislation, and no information was included about how much the grant program would cost.

Diana Poor, deputy director of planning for the Houston Police Department, said any kind of grant money would be beneficial. She said she's always looking for ways to get more naloxone for officers.

In 2017, the Houston Police Department spent $50,000 on 1,3000 doses of Narcan, mostly out of a concern about officers' exposure to fentanyl. However, Poor said the medication in that time has resulted in 18 successful overdose reversals.

"That's 18 people who could have died from an overdose," she said.

Naloxone typically runs anywhere from $10 to $4,000 for two doses, depending on how you administer it, said University of Texas pharmacy professor Lucas Hill, who heads an outreach program called Operation Naloxone that distributes the medication across the state. The intramuscular injection is the cheapest, followed by the Narcan nasal spray and then the auto-injector.

Hill said law enforcement typically prefers the nasal spray, since it is easy to administer and has less risk of needle sticks. Two doses typically cost $75, he said.

"I think it would be great if every police officer has naloxone on them, but there is a cost-benefit analysis that needs to happen," Hill said. "At Operation Naloxone, we have prioritized people who use drugs and their friends and family members and agencies that serve them as the top priority."

Hill said these people are usually first to respond to an opioid overdose and that the harm-reduction groups that serve them are reporting large numbers of successful overdose reversals and are constantly seeking more supply. The same isn't true for law enforcement, he said. Officers often never use the medication, then toss it out once it expires. Hill said drugs users, on the other hand, will hold onto the medication after its expiration date, when it's still effective.

"A lot of the talk I hear from law enforcement from the Legislature about the reason for equipping officers with naloxone is to protect themselves from passive fentanyl exposure," Hill said. " I want to really emphasize that that is really nonsense. That has not happened. That cannot happen. There are no confirmed instances of that happening. It is an urban legend, like getting HIV from a toilet seat."

Hill said he wants officers to know there's no reason to delay resuscitation efforts when responding to an opioid overdose or to wear any protective equipment to guard against fentanyl exposure. 

"The way to prevent that from happening is to share valid, accurate information about the risk of fentanyl," he said. "It is an extremely dangerous situation for people who use drugs, but it is not a significant risk for the people who are responding to drug issues."