Victoria police got so many overdose calls overnight they ran out of naloxone

Victoria police say their officers responded to so many overdose calls overnight on Thursday that they had to restock their naloxone supply in the morning.

Officers were called to five overdose calls in a 12-hour period, according to Victoria Police Department (VicPD) spokesperson Bowen Osoko.

Three of the calls came from the same location and at the same time.

“To put it in perspective, I imagine that when we replaced the naloxone today, we probably had to replace between 10 and 15 doses,” Osoko said.

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The first call, just before 9 p.m., came in as a domestic assault on Swift Street. But when officers arrived, they found no assault was underway.

Instead, they found two people trying to assist a third who had stopped breathing and had no pulse due to an opioid overdose.

Officers deployed naloxone and performed CPR, before handing the patient off to paramedics.

Then, just after 1 a.m., patrol officers were called to the 700-block of Cormorant Street, where paramedics were trying to revive a non-responsive patient. That patient did not survive, and the initial investigation suggests an overdose, Osoko said.

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Just after 5 a.m., officers were called to the intersection of Pandora Avenue and Amelia Street for another assault call.

As in the first instance, officers arrived to find no assault, but instead two people suffering from an overdose, Osoko said.

The officers administered naloxone several times and performed CPR, before firefighters and paramedics arrived on scene and assisted in reviving the patients, he said.

“Often, people require multiple doses to be revived. So for example, when the two that were down together, they required at least three administrations each,” Osoko said.

While that was happening, a third person nearby also went into overdose; police and first responders assisted and were able to revive them as well.

Osoko said that final overdose exhausted the officers’ supply, and they had to return to headquarters to restock.

Osoko said all VicPD staff are trained with naloxone, and patrol officers carry at least one dose with them at all times. He said patrol supervisors carry a larger stock.

Victoria police have been equipped with the nasal spray form of naloxone since 2016.