Monongahela mayor defends stance on Narcan
In a city with low overdose rates and easy access to medical services, Monongahela Mayor Bob Kepics said the risks of requiring police to carry Narcan outweigh the benefits.
“There are things that happen if you don’t use Narcan the right way,” he said. “I was a medic for 28 years, so I know what happens if people come back from it and I know what happens if people don’t come back from it.”
Washington County firefighters and police were trained to administer Narcan beginning in July 2015. Now Monongahela is the only Washington County municipality in which police do not carry the overdose reversal drug.
Kepics said administering Narcan with limited training or experience can pose a risk to both the person administering the drug and the person receiving it. He said a person who is given Narcan may become combative or may experience a reaction requiring immediate medical care. With an ambulance service five minutes from the police station and a hospital 10 minutes away, he said police carrying Narcan is impractical. Ambulance workers are more experienced and better equipped to administer Narcan, he said.
Ramona Bright, director of Tri-Community Ambulance Service in Monongahela, would not comment specifically on Kepics’ stance. But she said all ambulance workers carry Narcan, and medics commonly arrive on scene within minutes of police.
“We’ve been doing it for years, and the police officers have just recently gotten involved,” she said.
“It’s up to each individual service what they choose to do.”
Mon Valley EMS Chief Bill Hess in Monessen said it is advantageous in his experience for police to carry Narcan.
“We’ve had quite a few situations where they’ve gotten there prior to us,” he said.
Mon Valley EMS serves 11 communities, including Charleroi, Monessen, Donora, North Belle Vernon and neighboring municipalities. They do not serve Monongahela.
Hess said between January and the end of October, Mon Valley EMS has responded to 98 overdoses. Fifty-one of those were for heroin, and seven resulted in death.
Kepics said Monongahela police have only responded to three overdoses this year. One of those was dead on arrival, he said.
“This heroin epidemic is really bad,” he said. “It’s sad that you have to have Narcan in the schools. It’s sad that you have some businesses that have to have it.”
He said police are meant to protect and serve, not take the place of paramedics. He said the role of police in the heroin epidemic is to take drugs off the streets. In his nine years as mayor, he said the city police department has made 900 drug busts.
In July, police found four bricks of heroin in a traffic stop.
“I do care for these people who are on drugs,” he said. “It’s not like we aren’t trying. We are.”