Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco talks about increased safety measures at the coroner's office due to increasingly potent drugs being tested. The Enquirer/Liz Dufour


They are wearing gloves, they have masks available and some carry a life-saving, overdose-reversal drug – for their own protection.   

Safety forces are changing their approach to drug-related and overdose calls to reduce their own risk of exposure to deadly synthetic opiates, mainly fentanyl. 

"The dangers are extremely high, and it's changing how we do law enforcement," said Newtown Police Chief Tom Synan. "We have to protect ourselves. That's the top priority."

The precautions include Cincinnati police K9 handlers being trained how to use naloxone on their dogs.

The changes in handling drug scenes are happening across the country.

Last year, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration released a video to police agencies warning them of the potential perils of fentanyl exposure after two undercover officers were affected by the drug. Both fully recovered. 

Fentanyl can be absorbed in skin, open cuts and by inhaling a tiny amount.

This synthetic opiate and its analogs are far more powerful than heroin. But their potency is not always clear-cut because the drugs on U.S. streets are largely manufactured overseas in "bucket" factories – without precision.


Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco, the Hamilton County coroner, said that the county's crime laboratory analysts are vigilant about the risks of handling all suspected drugs.

"That door to the drug section is locked at all times," Sammarco said recently. "They cannot be cavalier. They have to be ... cognizant that everybody has to gown up, everybody has to mask up. Everybody has to be vigilant.

"Safety of our people is first and foremost," the coroner said. She prescribed and acquired a form of naloxone that can be injected into those experiencing overdose symptoms, in case anyone in the crime lab is exposed to powerful opioids. "There are five physicians in this building. Any one of us can administer the injectable Narcan," Sammarco said

To be prepared, police typically carry either a 2-mg. nasal naloxone or a 4-mg. Narcan spray device. Emergency responders have had to use higher doses to revive people who have overdosed.

On May 23, Hamilton County sheriff's staff were warned about the latest danger with fentanyl: It has been found in cocaine, not just in heroin. The alert was the second in less than a year that Sgt. Mike Steers, assistant commander of the heroin task force, put out to warn deputies to take precautions because of potent substances in the drug supply.

The first warning came last year, after the elephant opioid carfentanil was discovered in July in heroin that was seized in Hamilton County. Carfentanil can be 100 times the strength of fentanyl.

"I sent a memo suspending the practice of field-testing drugs," Steers said.

Other law enforcement agencies throughout the region have also stopped testing the drugs on the streets and in their offices.

The Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force is among them. "When we seize these drugs ... they are commonly already packaged in baggies, bindles (a small envelope,  made by folding a square piece of paper, to carry powdered drugs) or vials," said task force director Chris Conners. "If not, or if the packages appear faulty, we use the gloves and place it in another plastic, Ziploc container. We also do this when processing evidence at our office to further protect us and the lab personnel."

Lt. Steve Saunders, spokesman for the Cincinnati Police Department, said city police are given two sets of gloves to carry in pouches on their belts and have access to other protection, including masks.

A city police officer who felt lightheaded after he was exposed to an illicit substance during a traffic stop was taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center on May 23. Saunders said the officer, who has not been named because he works undercover, did not overdose and recovered quickly.

In Northern Kentucky, Alexandria police started carrying naloxone early this year. Police Chief Michael Ward said he got them trained and equipped with the non-narcotic after learning of the potency of fentanyl and its analogs.

"I am so scared that we're going to find probable cause and search a car, and as the officer flips through things, he or she goes down," Ward said. "We started carrying Narcan for our officers' protection." 

Steers said that sheriff's deputies are told to be careful when they spray the medication into overdosed people's nostrils because the drug user may have snorted a powdered opiate, and residue stays in the nostrils. That means officers come into close contact with whatever drug was snorted.

Bellevue Police Chief Wayne Turner said the toxic opiates are a clear threat to safety forces who deal with an epidemic that they encounter nearly every day in their work.

"Fentanyl or carfentanil and the ever-increasing analogs have forced us all to modify our protocols," Turner said.

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