Bristol PCs trained to use overdose drug after heroin deaths

Police have received training on how to prevent a deadly drug overdose

Police officers are being trained how to use a drug that can stop heroin overdoses after a batch in Bristol is suspected of causing six deaths.

An urgent warning was issued by the council and police on 6 July and four arrests have been made.

Around 400 officers have now been learning how to use a nasal spray version of Naloxone, called Nyxoid.

PC Thomas Ganley, who attended two of the suspected heroin overdoses, said: "Hopefully it will save some lives."

He added: "It can be quite distressing, almost being helpless as you watch someone struggling and suffering, when in reality there is a solution and now that we have got the training it will be interesting to see how it works."

PC Ganley attended two overdoses suspected to be linked to the dangerous batch of heroin

Bristol City Council issued a warning after the suspected overdose deaths, which all occurred within a two week period.

Avon and Somerset Police said it has seized a large quantity of suspected heroin from a property in Easton which is being investigated.

PC Ganley said the two deaths he attended both happened on the same shift.

Nyxoid could help prevent fatal drug overdoses

"We were made aware of it [one of the incidents] because there was someone banging on doors in the middle of the night which was scaring people," he said.

"We made the connection about what was going on and found the person in the bush, but by the time we found them though it was a little too late."

Lydia Plant, service manager at Bristol Drugs Project, said the situation across the city is improving, adding that there have been no fatalities in over two weeks.

But she said they are still getting reports of overdoses.

Lydia Plant from the Bristol Drugs Project said the situation is improving

"There are still some reports of people having trouble with the heroin that they are taking," she said.

"So because this is a public health emergency, citizens in Bristol have been dying, we have been getting Nyxoid out and have trained about 250 professionals in it."

Those 250 professionals, who have been trained as well as the 400 police officers, work in sectors like healthcare, hospitals, and security, where they may come into contact with users.