CAIRO — The Grady County Sheriff’s Office is taking steps to arm itself with a life-saving medication for opioid overdose victims.

Sheriff Harry Young has seen the need for deputies to carry naloxone, according to a sheriff’s office press release.

Naloxone, packaged as a nasal spray as NARCAN, is used by first responders to reverse the life-threatening effects of opioid or heroin overdoses.

Young instructed Capt. Daniel Singletary to research the cost to provide NARCAN to his deputies, according to the release.

Singletary ordered enough NARCAN to arm the deputies at the price of $1,300.

“It is very expensive and it does have an expiration date on the medicine, but we will try to incorporate it into the budget in the future,” Singletary said.

That cost will not be burdened on Grady County taxpayers, the press release states. Rather, the cost will be absorbed through a drug seizure account.

The account is funded through seizures from drug-related activities when court ordered and awarded to the sheriff’s office. The funds are placed into an account that is regulated and reported. Funds from the account can be used only on certain pre-approved items.

Young’s decision comes just weeks after a Cairo Police Department officer used NARCAN to save the life of a heroin overdose victim.

On Oct. 6, Cairo Police Department Investigator Giovannie Santos responded to a dispatch for a heroin overdose by administering NARCAN. The victim was then transported to Grady General Hospital where she recovered.

The residence where the overdose occurred is outside the police department’s area of jurisdiction. Santos, who was off-duty at the time, responded to the dispatch because sheriff’s deputies en route to the scene lacked the necessary medication. 

Medical technicians told law enforcement the victim likely would not have survived the overdose had Santos not administered the NARCAN.

Singletary said the decision to purchase the NARCAN was directly related to the Oct. 6 incident.