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Philadelphia Police Officers Being Trained To Administer Anti-heroin Drug To Potential Overdose Victims

By Kim Glovas

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia police officers are now being trained to use a drug to reverse overdose by heroin.

Officers in the East Division began training in January to use Naloxone, also known as Narcan, to reverse a drug overdose.

Deputy Police Commissioner Christine Coulter says, "We rolled it out in East Division because the data shows that's where the most overdoses have been, but this is going to be city-wide. We're gonna go from one division to the next and let the data provided by both the fire department and the feds drive us to where we go next."

Officer Moses Velez has saved two lives since his training.

"I was able to use the training I received and use the Narcan, also administer rescue breathing to help him, and it felt good to be able to help him prior to rescue getting there and give him a better chance at coming back."

The training and drugs for East Division officers cost $57,000.

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