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Organization gives Avondale Police officers drug to reverse opioid overdoses

Avondale Estates Crime and public safety slideshow

Organization gives Avondale Police officers drug to reverse opioid overdoses

An Avondale Estates Police Car. Source: City of Avondale Estates, GA
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From http://www.avondaleestates.org/

Avondale Estates’ police officers have a new weapon in their arsenal.

Recently, the Davis Direction Foundation provided 10 officers with three doses each of Nalaxone, also known as NARCAN, a nasal spray which can be used to reverse opioid overdoses.

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The foundation works to “remove the outdated stigma of opiate addicts and innovatively revamp the rehabilitation process to appropriately address the disease of Opioid/Heroin Addiction as one of the most severe forms of addiction,” according to its website.

Police Chief Lynn Thomas said the donation is worth around $4,500.

“[Executive Director] Missy Owen, along with the foundation’s Medical Director Harold McLendon, recently provided the Avondale Estates Police Department training in the area of Opioid/Heroin awareness and Naloxone (NARCAN) use,” Thomas said in an email to residents. “Following the block of training, the Davis Direction Foundation provided starter kits of NARCAN to properly equip every Avondale Estates uniform patrol officer in hopes of reversing Opioid overdoses the officers might encounter.”

Thomas recognized Owen at the Dec. 11 Avondale Estates City Commission meeting where the foundation received a $300 donation from the DeKalb County Chiefs Association, presented on behalf of the Avondale Estates Police Department.

Thomas told Decaturish the department hasn’t had any reason to use the drug yet and said it will hopefully stay that way.

“It’s like everything else you carry. You try to be prepared with today’s surroundings,” Thomas said. “You hope you don’t have to use it, but we’ve got it just in case.”

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