Saying the city needs to think outside the box, Middletown City Council member Dan Picard asked if it was possible for EMS to not respond to overdose calls.
Noting people with cancer don’t get free chemotherapy from medics nor do people having heart attacks get a free heart bypass in an EMS run, Picard asked if there was a law that requires the city to respond to overdose calls.
He said the city should instill fear in those who overdose that no one will respond with Narcan to save their life.
Middletown is on pace to spend $100,000 for Narcan when it budgeted $10,000 for the entire year.
Here’s what some of you are saying:
- "Imagine YOUR child laying there dying. Now tell me you'll make the same judgement. And while we're passing judgement, do we use the paddles on the guy having the heart attack after he spent the last twenty years eating cheeseburgers? How about the kid that got drunk and plowed his car into a tree? We stop responding to those? WHO EXACTLY gets to decide which lives have value?" — Jennie Spicer
- "Who exactly would be responsible for deciding whether the call is a heroin overdose or not? Are we putting that life-or-death responsibility on the conscience of a 911 operator? An EMT? A physician? And what happens when a patient presents as an OD, but it's really something else? Who gets sued? …" — Nicole Williams
- "Charge for the dosages used. Make the user responsible. Picard has the solution. Just listen to him. Make those people pay up for their foolish behaviors. Community service for a year." — Sherry Johnson Grissom
- " Chain gangs. Roads are in bad shape all over Butler county, arrest them and make them do physical work until the debt for narcan is paid off. They can fill potholes, clean streets/storm drains, clean up garbage along the roads/rivers, etc.. Fines won't work, all their money will be spent on heroin. Normal jail time is a waste of money…we may as well get some free labor in return for saving them. Otherwise make it a one and done shot of narcan. If they can't decide after overdosing once that they don't want to quit, they aren't going to. Addiction isn't a disease, they CHOOSE to shoot up and risk dying chasing that high." — Mike Settle
- "If a caller calls and said so and so is passed out, not breathing, unconscious, etc, are they just not going to show up because they think it's an overdose? Doctors won't diagnose without seeing patient first, how could 911?" — Pam Darone
- "Maybe we need to get to the root of the drug abuse. Why are sooo many people self medicating in this country??? Mental health is so over looked and not addressed. It is soooo frustrating!!!" — Maureen Kline
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