By Meg Jones
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
MILWAUKEE — All 489 Wisconsin State Patrol officers are now trained and equipped to administer the life-saving opioid antidote Narcan.
Opioid abuse and drug overdoses have increased substantially in Wisconsin as well as the rest of the country. The number of deaths in Wisconsin from prescription opioids increased 600% from 2000, when 81 people died, to 568 in 2016, according to state statistics.
Meanwhile, heroin overdose deaths increased from 28 in 2000 to 371 in 2016.
A State Patrol trooper is credited with helping save the life of a drug overdose victim by using Narcan.
A trooper based out of Spooner joined a Sawyer County sheriff’s deputy and Lac Courte Oreilles police officer on New Year’s Eve for a report of a 41-year-old woman suspected of overdosing on heroin. The woman’s breathing was shallow and her pulse was weak, and when the trooper administered a dose of Narcan, the victim’s condition quickly improved, the State Patrol said.
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