Drug antidote spray already saving lives in Wales

A pilot to use a nasal spray to prevent heroin overdose deaths is now being rolled out across a Welsh police force.

North Wales Police says all officers can now volunteer to carry the naloxone medication.

It follows a successful pilot in Flintshire, where the antidote was used to save two lives.

"We need to do what we can to stop these drug deaths," said the force's outgoing Police and Crime Commissioner, Arfon Jones.

He has pushed for naloxone to used by his officers, along with calls to reform laws on drug use.

"Why? Because of the number of avoidable death from opioid overdoses that we have, not just here in north Wales, throughout Wales, England and especially in Scotland," said the commissioner.

"Police officers are often the first people to the scene of an incident, and we feel they should be equipped to do what they are trained to do.

"I see it as that, part of the core police function to protect lives."

Developed in the 1960s in the United States, naloxone has been widely used there to treat heroin and other opiate drug overdoses for more than two decades.

Between 1996 and 2014 it was credited with reversing opioid overdoses in more than 26,000 cases in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This is the first time it will be made widely available to a Welsh police force.

During the pilot, the antidote was first used earlier this month when an armed response team found a missing man collapsed in the car park of a hotel in Northop, Flintshire.

It was used again by two police constables called to a house being used as a squat by drug-takers in Connah's Quay, Flintshire.

"When the call came in, we recognised the symptoms of a drug overdose so we responded under blue lights and made sure an ambulance was on its way too," said PC Tom Brownhill.

"When we got there the man was out for the count. He's a long-time heroin user and although the other people there said he hadn't taken anything it was clear he had.

"His breathing was very laboured and he was unconscious so we each gave him both doses of the spray which we both carry.

"It acts very quickly and within three minutes he started to come round, but he had certainly been in a bad way."

Colleague PC James Tapely said the antidote "worked exactly how they said it would when we were training".

"We found out afterwards it was confirmed as a heroin overdose and the patient recovered," he added.

Mr Jones said talks with other forces across Wales about deploying naloxone were well under way.

Dyfed-Powys Police said it was already training officers in custody suites to be able to use it in emergency situations when no health care professionals were available.

It is already being used regularly by Police Scotland.

The north Wales commissioner described the rollout in his force as "one of my proudest moments" in the post.

He is standing down following the election on 6 May for new police and crime commissioners across Wales.