New anti-overdose drug in use by Eaton County Sheriff

LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — Eaton County is the second county in the state to roll out an anti-overdose drug stronger than Narcan to match the stronger drugs circulating on the street.

Opvee is an anti-overdose nasal spray that stays in the body for up to 11 hours and reverses both natural and synthetic overdoses, in contrast to drugs like Naloxone, also known as Narcan. It is currently only available for law enforcement agencies and medical professionals.

“It’s unfortunate people get in the habit of drugs, but we are going to still try to save lives,” says Tom Reich, the Eaton County Sheriff.

Reich says that Narcan wasn’t enough to meet the department’s needs.

“There were some patients that we were responded to that, heck we were giving them six seven doses of Narcan before they came around,” said Reich. “Some never came around because there was so much fentanyl, synthetic stuff mixed with the opioid… the old Narcan stuff just wouldn’t work.”

The Oakland County Sheriff’s Department was the first law enforcement agency in the U.S. to roll out the drug, adopting it last year. They shared body-cam footage from their first “Opvee save.”

The Oakland County Sheriff’s Department says they have saved more than 600 lives from an overdose with treatments such as Narcan and Opvee.

“How can we constantly stay in front of technology or capabilities?” says Michael Bouchard, the Oakland County Sheriff. “And this is again one more tool in the toolbox, and I think more agencies will adopt it.”

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