Life Saving Narcotics Training – Pickens Sheriff Office

The Pickens County Sheriff’s Office has recently completed training that can help in the pursuit of saving lives. The past two weeks all deputies with the Pickens Sheriff’s Office have completed training to equip them with a Naloxone injector. These injectors are for the treatment of opioid overdoses in both adults and children. In the event of an overdose this will be a terrific tool for saving lives.

An Opioid overdose is an acute condition from excessive use of narcotics. Prescription opioid overdose was responsible for more deaths in the United States from 1999-2008 than heroin and cocaine overdose combined. Symptoms may include pinpoint pupils, decreased consciousness, slowed breathing and/or heart rate and could include seizures and muscle spasms. Usually you will not be able to wake a person experiencing an opiate overdose.

Naloxone is very effective at reversing the cause and works by blocking the effects of opiates to relieve dangerous symptoms caused by high levels of opiates in the blood. It is used along with emergency medical treatment to reverse the life-threatening effects of opiate (narcotic) overdose. The purchase of the injectors was made possible through a grant.