Ohio Sheriff: My Officers Don't Carry Narcan Nor Will They

BUTLER COUNTY, OH — The sheriff in one Ohio county says his officers don't carry Narcan and will not be carrying the life-saving drug, which is used to successfully revive someone who might overdosing on opioids.

Butler County sheriff Richard Jones says Narcan is not the answer and cited officer safety as the reason for not carrying the substance.

"They never carried it," Jones told the Cincinnati Enquirer. "Nor will they. That's my stance."

Jones told the Enquirer that when people are revived they are often violent and are almost never happy to see the police, explaining why he believes officer safety in an issue as it relates to reviving people with Narcan.

Jones' comments come as a city official in nearby Middletown, Ohio said his answer to spiraling Narcan costs was to let some addicts die.

“Is there a law that says we have to go out?” Middleton City Councilman Dan Picard asked, adding later that he is “to the point of we need to make a decision that perhaps we don’t.”

Ohio has been called the "face of the nation's opioid epidemic." An average of eight Ohioans died a day due to accidental opiate overdoses in 2015, according to Ohio Department of Health statistics. For the year, 3,050 people died of overdoses, up 20 percent from the year prior. Opioid deaths similarly spiked from 2013 to 2014.

In a separate interview with NBC News, Jones said that repeatedly treating people with Narcan is "sucking the taxpayers dry." He added that by using Narcan, addicts are simply being revived and not cured. Jones also told NBC News that paramedics respond to the scene at about the same time as officers and they are more equipped to use Narcan.

"We don’t go there and let people die," Jones said.

The Enquirer notes that the Jones is the only sheriff in southwest Ohio whose officers don't use Narcan. In 2016, drug overdoses killed 192 people in Butler County.

"There's no law that say police officers have to carry Narcan," Jones told NBC News. "Until there is, we're not going to use it."

Beth Dalbey contributed to this report

Image via Butler County Sheriff's Office