Smiley-McDonald Hope M, Attaway Peyton R, Richardson Nicholas J, Davidson Peter J, Kral Alex H
Division for Applied Justice Research, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA.
Department of Medicine, Division Global Public Health, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA.
Health Justice. 2022 Feb 25;10(1):9. doi: 10.1186/s40352-022-00172-y.
Many law enforcement agencies across the United States equip their officers with the life-saving drug naloxone to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. Although officers can be effectively trained to administer naloxone, and hundreds of law enforcement agencies carry naloxone to reverse overdoses, little is known about what happens on scene during an overdose call for service from an officer's perspective, including what officers perceive their duties and responsibilities to be as the incident evolves.
The qualitative study examined officers' experiences with overdose response, their perceived roles, and what happens on scene before, during, and after an overdose incident. In-person interviews were conducted with 17 officers in four diverse law enforcement agencies in the United States between January and May 2020.
Following an overdose, the officers described that overdose victims are required to go to a hospital or they are taken to jail. Officers also described their duties on scene during and after naloxone administration, including searching the belongings of the person who overdosed and seizing any drug paraphernalia.
These findings point to a pressing need for rethinking standard operating procedures for law enforcement in these situations so that the intentions of Good Samaritan Laws are upheld and people get the assistance they need without being deterred from asking for future help.
美国许多执法机构为其警员配备了可挽救生命的药物纳洛酮，以逆转阿片类药物过量服用的影响。尽管可以对警员进行有效培训以使其能够使用纳洛酮，并且数百个执法机构都携带纳洛酮以逆转药物过量服用的情况，但从警员的角度来看，对于在过量服用药物报警服务现场实际发生的情况，包括随着事件的发展警员认为自己的职责是什么，人们了解得很少。
这项定性研究考察了警员应对药物过量服用事件的经历、他们所认知的角色以及在药物过量服用事件发生之前、期间和之后现场发生的情况。2020年1月至5月期间，对美国四个不同执法机构的17名警员进行了面对面访谈。
在药物过量服用事件发生后，警员们表示过量服用药物的受害者需要前往医院，或者会被送往监狱。警员们还描述了在使用纳洛酮期间及之后他们在现场的职责，包括搜查过量服药者的财物并没收任何吸毒用具。
这些发现表明迫切需要重新思考执法机构在这些情况下的标准操作程序，以便维护《好撒玛利亚人法》的意图，使人们在不被阻止寻求未来帮助的情况下获得他们所需的援助。
