Big Issue: Should Cops Inject Drugs into American Citizens?

Police are acting in the place of medical professionals. Sometimes it avoids violence or death. Other times the people they sedate die. It is a messy, complex and urgent issue.

PLUS this video preview of a feature for Sunday: The Big Conversation Gallery.’

AND…The Big Conversation Power Nap. It’s up and running at the bottom of this newsletter.

But first…a new story about police injecting drugs into some people they arrest.

(Abode image licensed to Mike Lee)

What’s this have to do with you?

Big Issues can tie us together in ways we may not realize, until we engage in big conversations. This is the story of police and paramedics injecting drugs into people who may or may not need them. At first glance it seems to affect an increasing, but still relatively small number of people on the fringe of society. Then, we discover something we may not have thought of.

First…the finding of a new report…

The practice of giving sedatives to people detained by police (has) spread quietly across the nation over the last 15 years, built on questionable science and backed by police-aligned experts, an investigation led by The Associated Press has found.

At least 94 people died after they were given sedatives and restrained by police from 2012 through 2021, according to findings by the AP in collaboration with FRONTLINE (PBS) and the Howard Centers for Investigative Journalism. That’s nearly 10% of the more than 1,000 deaths identified during the investigation of people subdued by police in ways that are not supposed to be fatal. (Link)

What should we make of that?

Supporters of the technique say that sedatives can enable police officers to avoid violent confrontations, thus potential serious injury to suspects or themselves, during “ ‘drug-related’ behavioral emergencies and psychotic episodes.” It is also said that sedatives are safely administered thousands of times each year with no long term adverse effect, in order to get people with life threatening conditions to hospitals.

Critics say that ‘forced sedation’ should be strictly limited, or banned, because it is too risky to be left to police or, in many cases, paramedics.

My notes: Police should not have to be carrying needles around with them. But, as this recent ‘Big Conversation’ revealed, police, who should just be doing their job of enforcing the laws, are now required to act as ad hoc domestic abuse negotiators, counselors, and substitute mental health workers; none of which they are properly trained to do. But with increasing cutbacks in social and public heath spending, officers often find themselves trying to solve problems beyond their brief or skills.

Back to the sedation story…

It was impossible to determine the role sedatives may have played in each of the 94 deaths, which often involved the use of other potentially dangerous force on people who had taken drugs or consumed alcohol. Medical experts told the AP their impact could be negligible in people who were already dying; the final straw that triggered heart or breathing failure in the medically distressed; or the main cause of death when given in the wrong circumstances or mishandled. (Same AP link)

Not surprisingly, there is a racial element to this story. Around half of those who died after injections during police related incidents were Black. There is no allegation that police were out trolling for African Americans to inject. But there seems to have been some application of protocols for a disputed medical crisis known as ‘excited delirium.’

“Critics say its (‘excited delirium.’) purported symptoms, including “superhuman strength” and high pain tolerance, play into racist stereotypes about Black people and lead to biased decisions about who needs sedation.

Guidelines require paramedics to make rapid, subjective assessments of the potential dangers posed by the people they treat. Only those judged to be at high risk of harming themselves or others are supposed to be candidates for shots.

But the investigation found that some whose behavior did not meet the bar — who had already largely calmed down or in rare cases even passed out — were given injections. In some cases, paramedics cited fears that people would become violent on the way to hospitals.

Guidelines require paramedics to make rapid, subjective assessments of the potential dangers posed by the people they treat. Only those judged to be at high risk of harming themselves or others are supposed to be candidates for shots.

But the investigation found that some whose behavior did not meet the bar — who had already largely calmed down or in rare cases even passed out — were given injections. In some cases, paramedics cited fears that people would become violent on the way to hospitals.” (Link)

So paramedics are also involved in some of these incidents. It is also worth noting that sedation sometimes takes place when suspects resist, or are thought to resist, arrest, in order to subdue them. But the report also contends that police officers and paramedics often have no way of knowing whether sedation is actually a medically sound option in a given incident. For instance, officers and paramedics typically have no way of knowing precisely what a distressed person might already have in their body that could interact badly with a sedative.

Yes, chances are that you are not likely to be involved in such shenanigans, so what does this have to do with you? I’m getting there.

Why are police given the authority to inject anyone with a sedative?

On the one hand, it is a way to potentially avoid the greater harm of a violent confrontation, like those which have preceded some well known deaths of people in custody. On the other hand, as above, police are not doctors.

Police are your employees.

They are paid your tax dollars to protect you, family and your friends. They are also not social workers, or medics, or psychiatric nurses. Yet they are forced to spend your money to intervene in domestic disputes (many of which are non-violent yet hugely time consuming distractions from protecting your neighborhood and catching bandits, etc) and dealing with drug abuse victims, some of whom are in the midst of a self-harming psychotic incident which can easily be mistaken for a challenge to police authority. As was also revealed in my above mentioned recent ‘Big Conversation,’ police could probably save more lives by just standing back from potential confrontations until reinforcements, or relevant social or mental health official help arrives. However, officers are often under pressure to wrap things up and move to the next case; or under pressure to make arrests; or simply at the end of their shift and want to go home. So in situations like that, they might tend subdue people, by force or drugs, or both.

Your money, your cops, your social care and health system: Under-funded, over-worked and under-covered by mainstream media.

In its 2024 Fact Sheet, the National Institute on Drugs and Addiction, part of the National Institute of Health, featured the following data, dating back to 2021. (There is no indiction things have gotten better since then)

The Addiction Public Health Crisis

• 40.3 million people in the United States had an SUD (Substance Abuse Disorder) in 2020.*

• In 2020, only 6.5 percent of people with SUD received treatment.*

• In 2021, about 107,000 people died of drug overdoses.**

• Black and American Indian/Alaska Native people had the highest rates of fatal overdose in 2021.***. (Link)

  Still don’t feel involved? Consider this…

  A Pew Research Center survey conducted in August (2017) found that 46% of U.S. adults say they have a family member or close friend who is addicted to drugs or has been in the past. Identical shares of men and women say this (46% each), as do identical shares of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents when compared with Republicans and Republican leaners (also 46% each). There are no statistically significant differences between whites (46%), Hispanics (50%) and blacks (52%). (Link)

  As we know, substance abuse is well connected to domestic abuse, rape and other forms of violence. And don’t forget the drug abuse connection to burglary, carjacking, mugging, and shoplifting.

  Your cops are out there dealing with that. On the whole, they are not trained to do the work of social care officials, psychologists or medics. Potentially dangerous sedatives have become one of their tools. Like any true story, it’s complicated. To use or not to use. Lives may be saved, or taken. Police have virtually no in-the-field back up from medical or mental health professionals because the money is not there. Your money.

NOW…that preview of Sunday’s feature: The Photo Gallery.

There are a lot of opinions out there about AI generated art, including photos. And there is a lot of it to see. I’m launching a Sunday visit to the ‘Big Conversation Art Gallery,’ where you can decide what you like or dislike. It will be eclectic. You will be the judge of its worth, and whether it triggers your own internal stories. Sometimes reporters like me might do well to let images speak for themselves. Here is a peak.

INTRODUCING THE ‘BIG CONVERSATION POWER NAP’

Big conversations and big thoughts can be exhausting, as well as enlightening. Here is the first in a series of my upcoming Power Nap Sounds. They will eventually become podcasts. Here is your first one. Just tap and recharge. The sound, which was featured in the Gallery Preview video, is called Mountain Wisdom.

‘Big Conversations’ is FREE to everyone at present. I hope you will help me build a following by sharing with your contacts. Thanks you so much.