COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – The Branch County Sheriff’s Department has started training and equipping its deputies to provide possible life saving assistance in treating the victims of heroin overdoses, which have increased dramatically in the county in the last year or two.
Sheriff John Pollack says last week most of the department’s road patrol officers were trained to administer naloxone, also called narcan, a medication used to reverse the effects of opioids, especially in overdoses. Pollack says the most of the deputies will be certified today to administer naloxone, which after being injected, is known to take away overdose effects almost immediately.
According to Pollack, the corrections officers at the jail will be the next to be trained in the procedure because occasionally, someone will be booked on a drinking related charge and turns out later on to be an overdose case. The Sheriff says his department and officers from Coldwater City Police conducted joint training exercises to learn how to treat overdoses with opioids.
