(UnitedVoice.com) – A Florida police officer required hospitalization last week after overdosing on the deadly opiate fentanyl. Shockingly, accidental exposure to the drug during a traffic stop left the cop needing urgent medical attention. It’s a chilling demonstration of how dangerous illegal narcotics can be.
On December 13, Tavares, FL, police officer Courtney Bannick carried out a traffic stop and found what she believed to be illegal narcotics. Following procedures, Bannick put on gloves before bagging the drugs as evidence, then set off back to her car — but then a colleague, Corporal Cullen O’Shea, heard her struggling for breath over the radio. When he went to her vehicle to check on her, she was already slipping in and out of consciousness.
How dangerous is #fentanyl? Investigators believe a Tavares Police Officer caught wind of the drug during a traffic stop and ended up unconscious on the ground. Fellow officers gave her Narcan and likely saved her life. @fox35orlando https://t.co/UzI7Q57zhe
— Amy Kaufeldt FOX 35 (@Fox35Amy) December 14, 2022
Colleagues quickly gave Bannick three shots of the opioid antidote Narcan before taking her to a hospital. She later said that she’s done this a hundred times before, but “It only takes one time and a minimal amount.”
If even a cop following proper procedures is at risk from increasingly powerful narcotics, what chance do the rest of us have? Doctors expect Officer Bannick to make a full recovery, thanks to the swift actions of medics and her fellow cops, but she’s one of the lucky ones. Last year, 80,816 people in the US died from opiate overdoses, mostly fentanyl.
As long as this lethal substance keeps flooding across the borders, is any American safe?
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