"Chasing the dragon": Man faces prison after yet another cop thinks his panic attack is fentanyl exposure.
*not satire
When Genesee County Sheriff’s Deputy Forrest Bradley had trouble breathing at the end of a 17-hour-shift, he suspected the worst: an opioid overdose from accidental exposure to fentanyl.
“I kind of blacked out,” he said. “I just remember (thinking) I just need to find someone. I can’t go down here because if I do, I won’t be found for a while.”
A second officer exposed to the drug also got sick. In a press hearing, the Sheriff commended Bradley for his quick thinking: he not only reached officers in time but was able to give them directions on how to properly administer Narcan.
“I just remember when I went down, I remember someone saying, ‘Hey, you’ve got to talk us through this. We don’t know what we’re doing,’” Bradley said. “And I remember telling them, ‘Listen, I’ve got it on me, just start washing me off. Give me some oxygen. And when I stop talking, you just start (administering Narcan) ‘til I start talking.”
As far back as 2011, the Genosee County Sherriff’s department has had a section on their site called “Chasing the Dragon” on the perils of heroin use. “The phrase "Chasing the Dragon" means to continually seek the next best high,” they offer helpfully.
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