Dumbarton mum calls for cops to give emergency jag

Sep 26 2008 by Amanda McKendrick, Lennox Herald (main ed)

THE mum of a teenager who died in police custody has called for a drug which could have saved his life to be made available in every police office in the country.

Peggy Hyslop’s 19-year-old son Chad was found dead in a cell at Dumbarton police office on February 25 last year following a heroin overdose.

A fatal accident inquiry into his death heard that emergency treatment Naloxone can reverse the effects of a heroin overdose and has been used to save lives.

Ready-prepared syringes of the drug cost between £3.30 and £6.70 and have previously been used in a trial scheme by Lothian and Borders Police.

Peggy wants police officers to be trained in the use of Naloxone and for the drug to be introduced to police stations.

She said: “Since Chad has died I can count at least 10 other drugs deaths in this areas, and that’s only the ones I know about.

“Naloxone might not have saved Chad but it could have, and we’ll never know because it wasn’t available.

“For the number of drug addicts the police lift every day, and the size of the drug problem in this area, that jag should be available in every police office. It should be available everywhere.

“They can dish out methadone willy-nilly to people but they don’t have this jag which could save people who overdose.

“It should be a priority so that some other gullible boy doesn’t die like my son.

“I know people are still getting drugs into cells and I know this will happen again. Chad’s death hasn’t changed anything.

“Nothing will bring back my son, but I don’t want anyone else to go through this.

“More needs to be done to tackle the drug problem in this area.”

Chad was not a drug addict but took heroin and suffered an overdose while locked in a Dumbarton cell with Robert Hastings and Robert Currie.

In June, Professor Neil McKeganey, director of Glasgow University’s Centre For Drug Misuse Research, told the Lennox Herald he supported calls for Naloxone to be available at police stations in a bid to revive those who overdose.

He said: “It seems to me that it’s entirely appropriate that custody staff are trained in the use of Naloxone and that it is available within the custody area in the event of drugs being smuggled into police cells.

“Naloxone would be the drug that is administered if the patient was taken to a hospital.

“There have been proposals to distribute Naloxone to drug users themselves in the community and I would say that remains controversial and dangerous.

“However, in a custody environment where the drug is controlled and staff are trained in its use, it is a different situation entirely — and it could indeed save lives.”

Naloxone, which can also be used to reverse a morphine overdose, is most commonly injected intravenously for fastest action. It works by occupying receptor sites in the brain and preventing opiates from binding to the brain and causing death.

The drug acts after about two minutes and its effects can last around 45 minutes, allowing valuable time to get a patient to hospital for further treatment. If a person is given the drug but had not suffered a heroin overdose it would have no adverse effect.