Windsor police searching for suspect in drive-by shooting

Fort Collins police to carry Narcan amid increasing overdoses

Jason Pohl
The Coloradoan
Sergeant Brandon Johnson with the Loveland Police Department carries two doses of Narcan to reverse possible opioid overdoses.

Scores of Fort Collins police officers in recent weeks have been armed with overdose-reversing naloxone, a move coinciding with national law enforcement efforts to ease a surge of opioid-involved deaths. 

Patrol officers, detectives and lab technicians — 154 police personnel — have been trained since mid-June to carry and use the drug better known by its trade name, Narcan. When training concludes this month, approximately 200 police personnel will have access to naloxone, said Officer Al Brown, medical skills team coordinator with Fort Collins police. 

“Given the increase in the opiate-related deaths, we want to be able to provide our officers with another tool to help save lives as well as the ability to help protect themselves if they find themselves in an environment that might pose a danger,” Brown said. 

By adding the drug to its tool belt, Fort Collins falls in line with deputies from sheriff's offices in Weld and Larimer counties as well as Loveland police and approximately half of all law enforcement agencies in Colorado that have at least some officers trained and equipped with the life-saving treatment. 

Fort Collin police in March said it was exploring what it would take to bring Narcan to the city. Since then, program organizers have been ironing out protocols and securing proper training to administer the medicine.

Though UCHealth responds to medical emergencies in Fort Collins proper, and EMTs carrying Narcan often respond at the same time as police officers, Brown said there are still instances when officers might encounter someone experiencing an overdose and medical help is minutes away. He and others say officers now have a way to help immediately when they encounter people suffering a heroin overdose or patients abusing prescription drugs. 

“We want to be able to provide that tool to save those segments of our population," he said. 

The Narcan is being made available through a program spearheaded by the Colorado Attorney General's Office, and officials are working on a partnership with UCHealth to assist in resupplies.  

In the roughly four weeks since Fort Collins officers started carrying Narcan, they have not had to use it.

The Loveland Police Department outfitted its 70 patrol officers with Narcan late last year. Officers were involved in two saves within the first few months of rolling it out, including halting one woman who became unconscious while speaking with an officer due to the effects of prescription medication. 

"A key component of our department's mission is to save lives," LPD Sgt. Brandon Johnson said earlier this year, describing a sense of helplessness on overdose calls in the past. "If an officer can administer Narcan in the critical minutes and seconds before EMS arrives and save someone, we accomplish our goal."

Overdose issues in Northern Colorado aren't at the level as those plaguing other U.S. communities, especially areas on the East Coast. But what's concerning to many in the region is the resurgence in heroin, an emergence of fentanyl abuse, and the ways these substances are crossing demographic and income thresholds.

The Larimer County coroner noted eight fentanyl, nine heroin and 14 prescription opiate deaths in 2016. Statistics for the first six months of 2017 were not immediately available, nor would they be complete — it takes several weeks of testing before toxicology testing is complete and details about drug-related causes of death can be released. 

The number of people who die each year from a heroin or opioid prescription painkiller overdose in Colorado quadrupled between 1999 and 2016, when 442 overdose deaths were reported. That trend follows a similar quadrupling of opioid prescriptions issued nationwide between 1999-2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Likewise, heroin-related deaths climbed in Colorado from 79 in 2011 to 160 in 2015 — preliminary numbers from the state health department indicate that number approached 200 last year.

“While our heroin problem here in Colorado may not be as severe as in other parts of the country, we haven’t escaped the devastation caused by abuse and addiction," said Dr. Larry Wolk, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, at a news conference earlier this year.

Law enforcement agencies in Colorado reported seizing at least 268.7 pounds of heroin in 2015 from 427 incidents, a massive increase from the 16 pounds seized and reported from 20 incidents in 2011, according to an April report compiled by the Heroin Response Work Group, comprised of experts from health, law enforcement and treatment groups. 

Emergency medical services in Colorado used naloxone to treat suspected heroin overdoses at least 3,393 times in 2015, up from 997 times in 2011, according to that report. 

The emerging issues led Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman to call for expanded Narcan availability for cops everywhere. 

Coffman, who chairs the Colorado Substance Abuse Trend and Response Task Force, in September announced the launch of the Colorado Naloxone for Life Initiative, which partnered with groups working to ease the surge of opioid dependency and abuse.

The Attorney General's Office allocated $264,500 for the program to purchase 2,500 dual-dose Narcan Rescue Kits and train law enforcement personnel and first responders, primarily in southern Colorado counties hardest hit by heroin and opioid overdoses. In September, there were 23 agencies in the state carrying the drug. As a result of the initiative, the number swelled to 130 law enforcement agencies by the end of March, Coffman said.

Reporter Jason Pohl covers public safety for the Coloradoan. Follow him on Twitter: @poh_jason.