CALHOUN COUNTY (WKZO-AM) — A bad batch of heroin has resulted in 14 overdoses and four deaths in Calhoun County in the last two weeks.
There might have been a fifth death on Monday, but a man suffering an overdose in the bathroom at a downtown restaurant was saved by a Battle Creek Police Department officer who was carrying naloxone, a popular injectable antidote for drug overdoses. Officers were all issued dosages of the drug two weeks ago.
Kalamazoo Public Safety officers and EMTs have had access to the drug for years.
The opioid epidemic is not just a local crisis. That’s why President Obama is expected to propose spending $1 billion on the problem in his 2017 budget, which should be unveiled next week.
“(It will) expand state-level strategies to work to reduce opioid overdoses, increase the availability of medication-assisted treatment programs, improve access to naloxone, and support targeted enforcement and supply activities,” Director of National Drug Control Policy Michael Botticelli said.
Botticelli said, currently, more people in the United States are dying from heroin overdoses than automobile crashes.
– John McNeill
