Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Should Cops Arrest Heroin Addicts After Saving Their Lives With Naloxone?
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Mar 6, 2015
Modified Mar 6, 2015
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Getty Images
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Mar 6, 2015
Modified Mar 6, 2015
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
The Staten Island Advance ran an interesting piece today about a man who was arrested by police officers who revived him after he overdosed on heroin at the St. George Ferry Terminal.
The man, Michael, was revived on February 4th as part of the NYPD's life-saving naloxone program. Cops armed with naloxone spray cannot criminally charge overdose victims who call 911, but this particular victim, who did not call for help, overdosed twice in under two months, and law enforcement officials claimed the arrest was meant to get him enrolled in a drug treatment program.
Fatal heroin overdoses have more than doubled citywide since 2010, with 32 Staten Island residents succumbing to them in 2013. Last year, city officials noted that heroin sales spiked higher than they had in two decades. The naloxone program has certainly been effective, having resulted in over 20 overdose rescues on Staten Island alone since it was implemented borough-wide in April of last year.
But once cops bring a revived overdose victim into a hospital, little can be done to nudge them into a treatment program, even though doctors will recommend counseling upon discharge. "Usually when somebody gets released from the hospital there's discharge and follow-up instruction," Jacqueline Filis, executive director of the YMCA Counseling Service, told the paper. "I don't know if they go so far as to schedule the appointment at a clinic. My assumption is no, because I haven't seen anybody come to me referred from an emergency room."
According to the SI Advance piece, cops made the right call with Michael:
Michael, who spoke on condition his last name not be used, says he initially started taking pills, but was turned onto heroin by a female friend. At one point, he unsuccessfully tried a regimen of medical treatment, and after his jail stay, he's taking naltrexone.
He's now in outpatient treatment at the YMCA, he says, and his stay in Rikers helped put his life in perspective.
"Jail sometimes could be even better than rehab. Rehab, I don't want to say it's cushy, but it's not jail, you know," he says. "It's not, 'You eat when we tell you to we eat, we feed you when we feed you.
"It's cold. You get crappy blankets. I do think that is a form of therapy, to be honest with you. It's a messed up form of therapy, but if you're halfway sane, it will set you straight."
After the first overdose, no one followed up to check on him, he says, and he stayed off drugs for about six weeks, but used heroin again on Feb. 4. He suspects that his lowered tolerance led to the the second overdose that day.
"It was a bad first time back, and that really brought it home this time, you know what I mean?" he says. "Now it seems that every single time I do it, that's going to happen. So now I'm too scared to do it at all, period, because I value my life, you know."
Still, research shows coerced treatment isn't always the way to go. The question, experts say, is whether cops should follow up with addicts to prevent relapse; Michael says visits from a social worker may have helped him after his first overdose. "People of my nature, you know, we become fearful of police officers a little bit," he told the paper. "Maybe a social worker follows up with you, just to see how you're doing, because some people don't have families like I do that care."
The city has funneled $1.2 million into the naloxone program.
Tagged
heroin
naloxene
nypd
overdose
overdoses
Rebecca Fishbein
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Deer are all over New Jersey roads looking for sex, state officials warn
Mid-October through mid-December is deer mating season, which can be a danger to drivers as the sex-seeking creatures cross roadways throughout the Garden State.
By
Rosemary Misdary
Published Oct 16, 2026 at 4:22 p.m. ET
Man messaged 'I got straight poison' before giving NYC college students fentanyl, feds say
A transcript from an April court hearing sheds new light on what transpired at Fashion Institute of Technology.
By
Samantha Max
News
Man messaged 'I got straight poison' before giving NYC college students fentanyl, feds say
A transcript from an April court hearing sheds new light on what transpired at Fashion Institute of Technology.
By
Samantha Max
Inside the plan to fix the nearly collapsed Pfizer Building, 1/64th of an inch at a time
By
David Brand
School bus carrying autistic students got lost in Brooklyn for 4 hours last year
By
Jessica Gould
NYC’s bridges can last 'forever,' if we take care of them
By
Clayton Guse
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .