Pressure grows on police forces to reverse their refusal to equip officers with life-saving naloxone

An MP has called for change and the deputy mayor of Manchester is “carefully examining” a police force’s refusal to equip its officers with naloxone, a drug which can reverse opioid overdoses and save lives. It comes after Big Issue reported just two police forces in the UK refuse to give their officers naloxone.

Amid record-high drug deaths, and at least 400 deaths linked to nitazenes, most police forces in the UK now give their officers the choice to carry naloxone, or have plans to. Some 20,000 officers now carry the drug, and it has been used more than 1,200 times by officers from June 2019 to December 2024, who are often first on the scene of potentially fatal overdoses.

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After Big Issue’s story last week that just two forces – Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and Suffolk Constabulary – refuse to let their officers carry naloxone, pressure is growing on them to reverse their decisions.

Available as a nasal spray, naloxone reverses the effects of an opioid overdose but has no effect – positive or negative – for somebody suffering from something else

“I urge GMP to reconsider their current approach and join the vast majority of other police forces in equipping their officers with naloxone. We must do everything we can to prevent tragic, avoidable deaths from drug overdoses,” Tom Morrison, the Liberal Democrat MP for Cheadle, told Big Issue.

“Greater Manchester Police are on the front line of responding to overdoses, and officers should have every available tool to help save a life in those critical moments before paramedics arrive.”

Morrison has written to Sir Stephen Watson, GMP’s chief constable, and Manchester’s deputy mayor Kate Green, asking for an explanation of why officers in the region do not carry naloxone. “I urge you to reconsider this position and align GMP’s strategy with best practice, ensuring officers have access to every available means to save lives,” he wrote, adding that the force’s objectives of prevention, safeguarding and partnership working were not in conflict with officers carrying naloxone.

Yet it appears the lack of naloxone for officers also flies in the face of a key promise made by those in charge of GMP just last year. A police and crime plan for Greater Manchester – endorsed by chief constable Watson, Green and mayor Andy Burnham – pledged to “encourage GMP officers to carry this life-saving drug”.

After being contacted by Big Issue, Green is “carefully examining” the evidence behind the force’s decision. A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Combined Authority said: “The carrying of naloxone by officers is an operational matter for GMP to decide.

“However, the deputy mayor is aware that GMP is one of only two forces in England and Wales not doing so. She is carefully examining the evidence about naloxone and remains in a dialogue with GMP over its use.”

The Home Office, Police Federation, Independent Office for Police Conduct and the National Police Chiefs’ Council all support the rollout of naloxone. Local areas, meanwhile, have been told to be fully prepared for the threat nitazenes pose.

Writing for Big Issue, Meg Jones, director of new business and services at drug charity Cranstoun and former head of policy for the West Midlands police and crime commissioner, said the move would “certainly” save lives. “Since I helped to lead West Midlands Police to become the first force to carry naloxone in 2019, we’ve seen effectively every other police force either begin carrying the medication or working to implement it,” wrote Jones. “The excuses from Suffolk and Greater Manchester forces just don’t wash

Peter Prinsley, the Labour MP for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, has also written to Suffolk’s police and crime commissioner, seeking answers over why the drug is not available to officers.

Norfolk Constabulary, which borders Suffolk, has trained 216 officers to carry naloxone, and they used it 16 times in the run-up to December 2024. In April, the force seized a batch of cocaine laced with nitazenes. “If they wait to know nitazenes have arrived it will be too late to train the police and to get naloxone kits,” drug expert and former GP Judith Yates previously told Big Issue.

In most cases, officers are given the choice of whether to carry naloxone. In Scotland, where its carriage is mandatory, officers have the choice whether to use it.

A group of MPs including Green Party leadership hopeful Ellie Chowns has tabled a motion in parliament urging the government to make naloxone available at key public locations and launch a national public awareness campaign.

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