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Council Reverses Vote, Gets OD Antidote
By Kevin Kearney Posted Apr. 17, 2015 at 4:41 PM
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HONESDALE - The borough police department will soon carry an antidote drug that rapidly reverses heroin and other opioid overdoses.

Borough council has voted unanimously to obtain two doses of naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan, to be carried by police officers.

The borough will pay no money for the doses, which were obtained by the Wayne County district attorney's office through a state grant.

Council's decision is a reversal of a vote last month in which members shot down the naloxone proposal.

At Monday night's meeting, President James Brennan said, "As a group we weren't against it, but we didn't have enough information."

Council's reversal came after District Attorney Janine Edwards gave a presentation highlighting the benefits of the antidote drug and addressing the negative impact opioid abuse has had in the area.

The district attorney noted that in 2013 the county experienced a 500 percent increase in property crime and a 200 percent increase in drug-related offenses.

"We directly correlate those increases to heroin and painkillers being sold in our communities,"

Edwards told council, noting how many addicts turn to theft to fund their dependencies.

Last month council members voted against obtaining naloxone in part because they were concerned with possible liability issues.

Edwards, however, pointed out that police cannot be held criminally or civilly responsible in the event they administer the drug.

The district attorney cited the recent passage of Act 139, or David’s Law.

The law makes naloxone available to law enforcement and other first responders, family members, friends or other persons in a position to assist an individual at risk of experiencing an opioid-related overdose.

Edwards also stressed that the antidote is a prescribed medicine and not a controlled substance.



Police can be trained online on how to administer naloxone.

The district attorney noted that state police will be carrying the doses. In addition, local police departments Waymart, Hawley and Lehigh Township are carrying the antidote drug.

Edwards noted that within a four-day span recently there were three opioid overdoses in Wayne County - in Hawley, Pleasant Mount and Lake Ariel. In Hawley the use of naloxone saved a victim's life, the district attorney said.

Gerald Margraf and Suzie Frisch, co-founders of the citizens' group Wayne County Heroin Prevention Task Force, thanked borough council members for reversing their vote from a month ago.

The district attorney's office received the grant through the state Department of Health.

Once the doses are used, the district attorney hopes to replenish them, she said.






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