ODESSA, Texas — For years, every officer with the Odessa Police Department has been able to carry Narcan, the drug that treats overdoses.
That is possible thanks to the Permian Basin Regional Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse.
"We have a great relationship with the Permian Basin Regional Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse," said Cpl. Steve LeSueur, OPD community relations officer. "We meet with them on a monthly basis. They donated Narcan to every single OPD officer a few years ago, and they recently gave us more cases, so every OPD officer does carry Narcan on them, so it is great to have."
According to LeSueur, with so many officers responding to overdoes, many lives have been saved.
“It is something, we’ve had a lot of success using it, because as officers, we do respond to overdoses on a regular basis, and we just never know," said LeSueur. "You always have to treat it as worst case scenario, so the Narcan is very beneficial."
While LeSueur doesn't know exactly how many lives the treatment has saved, he said it is well worth the effort.
"If we can just save one life, that’s worth it, and it’s been very effective so far, so we’ve had a lot of success," said LeSueur. "Don’t know how many lives it has saved, but we have had officers who received training on it, and we continue to receive training as well."
It is a good thing that Narcan is saving lives. However, he expressed that the best prevention comes before it gets this far.
"The best advice is don’t do it to begin with," said LeSueur. "Have those talks with your kids. It's so important to be on the same page with your kids, because a lot of times these teenagers, they're taking drugs thinking that it’s one specific drug, and they don’t realize it has fentanyl in it, that it’s laced with fentanyl, and all it takes is one time. It’s something we take very serious."