Law Enforcement Combating the Opioid Crisis
The ongoing opioid crisis is sweeping the country. Thursday, President Trump declared the crisis a national public health emergency.
For the Troy Police Department, the opioid crisis is nothing new, just like other places across the country.
Opioid overdoses have affected thousands of Americans. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 736 lives were lost in Alabama alone in 2015 from drug overdoses. It is something Troy police see first hand.
“Prescription medicines that are opioid based are really the biggest thing that we are coming across,” says Lt. Brian Weed of the Troy Police Department.
While Troy is a small community, officers say the way they combat the problem is the same as other cities.
“Having a working relationship with pharmacies is very important. Because a lot of times they catch the fork strips or the ones that are coming in there and trying to fill strips that they’ve already filled at other places,” says Weed.
Their biggest target for educating people on opioids? Children and teens.
“A lot of times it’s younger people that wind up. Maybe they get hurt or they have an accident or something like that and they get prescribed opioid based painkiller and they get addicted,” says Weed.
In some cases, officials say an addiction to opioid based painkillers, can lead to heroin use.
“They find that it’s cheaper to buy heroine on the street than it is to buy opioid based prescription medicines,” says Weed.
Just like officers, it is something that many want to see end.
“Sometimes it gets lost in the shuffle and they think that those prescriptions are ok. It’s still a narcotic, it’s still a drug,” says Weed.
In August, Governor Kay Ivey established the Alabama Opioid Overdose and Addiction Council, which has already met for the first time last month to combat the crisis in Alabama. According to the CDC, 52,404 people died nationwide in 2015 from drug overdoses. 63 percent of those deaths involved opioids.
