Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Commissioner Bratton Labels Bronx as Heroin Concern

By Elizabeth Elizalde | May 24, 2016 2:34pm
 Police Commissioner Bill Bratton wants better training for police officers confronting the increasing heroin addiction in New York City.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton wants better training for police officers confronting the increasing heroin addiction in New York City.
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Ben Fractenberg

BRONX — The growing heroin addiction problem is so overwhelming in Staten Island and The Bronx that the police commissioner wants all officers to carry the "Lazarus drug," a special spray for reviving victims of overdose.

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton went on The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC on Tuesday to talk about the heroin epidemic that's making a comeback to New York City. 

“There's going to be more done with the heroin epidemic,” Bratton told Lehrer. He added that the drug is “flooding our community,” because it's cheaper and more available than painkillers.

The drug has hit Staten Island recently, but Bratton called The Bronx his "biggest problem." 

"We have to medicate our way out of it," he said on the show.

Under an NYPD drug program officers are trained to use the nasal spray naloxone that revives those who overdose as well as other medical tactics.

Last year, two Staten Island cops saved a man's life using naloxone. 

Bratton didn't specifically cite work with Drug Enforcement Agency officials to bust drug dealers, but the agency has also labeled the state as a major drug hub.

In February, the DEA New York Division reported opioids in 2014 caused more than half of all drug overdose deaths nationwide. States including Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have also experienced a spike in drug overdoses.

Data indicates that drug traffickers are targeting New York City by using the state's highways as pipelines and linking them to drug dealers to feed opiate addiction, the DEA said.  

"What we are dealing with involves issues of supply and demand," Bratton said. "The NYPD continues to work closely with our federal and state law-enforcement partners in confronting the supply side, but this growing problem must be effectively addressed on all fronts." 

The NYPD plans to train 5,000 more officers to educate them how to administer the antidote through the anti-drug program.