“I feel that if an officer has Narcan, then they should only use it on children, officers and other significant situations that are not your average overdose,” Lonoke Co. Dispatcher.
“This was a non-scripted, from the heart moment, that the State Drug Director displayed on that day. This is why he left an ultra-successful career in law enforcement to fulfill his passion and desire for saving lives!” – Matt Burks, Office of Arkansas Drug Director media specialist.
His comments can be read by the closed captions feature on the video, and can be read below:
“Why are we saving people that are just wanting to get high? Or they’re just trying to feel normal? What purpose do they [serve]? Why do I have to change? Why do my prescriptions go up? Or why can’t I get my prescriptions because someone isn’t using them? Why are we saving them? Because we are supposed to. Because we’re human.”
“On the side of our police cars, I’d venture to say, somewhere it says ‘Protect and serve’ and that’s what we do. The most important thing that resonates with us is — is the fact that they are alive … there’s hope. And there’s hope in their recovery. And there’s hope they’ll become a better person. And there’s hope that they’ll help somebody else. And that’s the reason we are going to the Naloxone [program], because we care,and because these are our families. These are our brothers, our sisters, our children, our moms, our dads, our aunts and uncles. And that’s why we’re doing what we do.”