The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office was joined by Greenville County EMS personnel and state legislators Tuesday morning to announce a new joint opioid response program.
The new program, which was put into place at the start of the year, was announced at a joint press briefing where Sheriff Hobart Lewis explained the sheriff’s office still needs funding to equipment to make handling dangerous substances, such as fentanyl, more safe.
The joint program is meant to combat the opioid epidemic by improving investigative capabilities and create a more effective and comfortable process in treating those with opioid addictions.
“The initiative is called the Greenville County Opioid Response Program,” Sheriff Hobart Lewis said. “It’s mission is to identify people who have fallen victim to these dangerous drugs through an overdose and quickly turn around and provide them with resources to stop the cycle of addiction.
He said fentanyl overdose cases have gone down since this time last year but that the drug’s presence and danger still remains in the community.
“Many people in the community aren’t aware of these resources, such as drug treatment programs,” Sheriff Lewis continued. “We’re beginning to see the impact of having people go out into the field, meet one-on-one, and extent a helping hand.”
Sheriff Lewis also touted another advantage of the program, saying that it allows for the collection and analysis of opioid overdose data and follow-up with overdose victims that was not previously possible due to overdoses not being tracked as criminal offenses.
