Firefighters suspected of stealing opiates

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villian

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Dozens of Ocala firefighters are under investigation after police said six vials of morphine and fentanyl disappeared from locked boxes.

Ocala police said someone stole three vials of drugs from Engine 5 based on Northeast 25th Avenue (see map) , and three vials from Rescue Truck No. 1 from the headquarters last week.

The drugs disappeared on Friday and the fire chief has forced at least 35 firefighters to be drug-tested because it's believed the drugs were stolen for personal use.
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full @ http://www.wftv.com/news/27767864/detail.html
 
Mora Fiend said:
What the hell were firefighters doing with vials of morphine and fentanyl?
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I'm just guessing but some firefighters are also trained paramedics, so maybe if the firefighters are first on scene and someone is burned to shit they can give them medication?

I didn't know firetrucks had opiates on them either.
 
Damien said:
Getting high. Didn't you read the article?!
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ha ha, you win one internet!

Joking aside, I think it's common practice for fire departments to have some paramedics. The local fire department in my town even has it's own ambulance (there are a lot more privately operated ones though).
 
I understand morphine but why fentanyl? It doesn't seem like a first or even second line drug for an emergency situation.
 
Well a lot of firefighters are just volunteers...local people in your neighborhood. Doesn't mean they're all good, I know a lot of idiots at the local fire station where I live.
 
This is not the same case but it is somewhat related so I don't want to start a new thread.


Paramedic who stole morphine and falsified records walks free from court

A former paramedic who stole drugs and took them while on duty, falsifying records to cover his tracks, walked free from court today.

Charles Kingdom, 36, altered paperwork to show he gave patients higher levels of drugs including morphine than he actually had, stealing and using the difference.

But he was given a suspended sentence for charges including theft, fraud and falsifying a drugs register after Plymouth Crown Court was told of his “exemplary” record and remorse over his actions carried out after his marriage collapsed in 2009.

Speaking after the case, Kingdom apologised to the South West Ambulance Trust, where he had worked for 15 years, and to his friends and family.

“I regret my offending, I realise it was a very stupid thing to do,” he said.

“I should have had the insight to get professional help, but for whatever reason I didn’t.”

Kingdom, of Brandon Road, Plymouth, was caught taking drugs in a toilet at work at an ambulance station in the Derriford area of the city in July last year.

When police later raided his home they found 46 empty ampoules of morphine and other opiates, plus a smaller number of empty ampoules that had contained drugs which masked the side effects of morphine use.

He was later found to have altered paperwork at the scene of call outs, where he would fill in a form for the patient giving the correct dose but alter the ambulance service version to show he had given them a higher dose. Sometimes he falsified documents to show he had given drugs when he had not given any.
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from http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/new...ree-court/article-3529885-detail/article.html
 
^I've heard of this happening before....paramedics aren't angels just like police officers aren't angels.

Imagine how stressful their jobs are, esp. in busy city departments. Oh, wait, there's a nice box of controlled substances within arms reach at all times...

I don't (completely) blame them.
 
Hammilton said:
I understand morphine but why fentanyl? It doesn't seem like a first or even second line drug for an emergency situation.
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I would guess mercy in a no way out situation for horribly burned people =\ (or really, for old people or other opiate patients they stumble upon in their work, there are a lot of them out there. What happens if you find a burned up guy who is already taking 160mg of OC a day ya know? Having fent / stronger opiates around is a necessity when you think about it with the amount of pain patients we have these days.
 
NeighborhoodThreat said:
^I've heard of this happening before....paramedics aren't angels just like police officers aren't angels.

Imagine how stressful their jobs are, esp. in busy city departments. Oh, wait, there's a nice box of controlled substances within arms reach at all times...

I don't (completely) blame them.
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While this is true, other people turn to drugs for similar woes in life. I'm glad that this guy didn't get his life destroyed by this but he shouldn't get special treatment. There are many serving sentences for simple possession of these drugs, while this guy stole them additionally. People living in poorer inner cities can easily have stressful lives and drugs within an arms reach at all times.

I knew a guy who was on the Rescue Squad for years and got seriously traumatized degree by his work... Nowadays he's regularly in jail due to drug possession, specifically his DoC, benzos. This drug use is undoubtedly tied to his service to the community (explains the choice of drug), but he is now oppressed in the very city to which he gave his sanity in the live of service. I guess he doesn't mind so much most of the time though since he's killing his emotions with benzos.

Infuriating, IMO... Approaches to mental health and drug use need a serious re-examination in this country.
 
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