
 
 EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio (WKBN) – An East Liverpool police officer, while responding to a drug-involved call Friday night, accidentally touched fentanyl and overdosed. 
 
 Around 8:50 p.m., East Liverpool Patrolman Chris Green responded to a traffic stop at the bottom of Lisbon Street at W. 8th Street. 
 
 According to a police report, officers had blocked in a blue Monte Carlo after watching the driver — 25-year-old Justin Buckle — perform what they believed was a drug transaction. 
 
 “We think they were trying to flee, but they were blocked in,” said East Liverpool Captain Patrick Wright. “Once they got blocked in, they tried to dispose of the evidence in the vehicle…There was white powder on the seat, on the floor, on the guys’ shoes, and on his clothing.” 
 
 After Buckle and passenger 24-year-old Cortez Collins were arrested, Green followed station protocol for handling drugs by putting on gloves and a mask when he searched the car. 
 
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 But when he got back to the station, another officer noticed Green had some of the white powder on his shirt. 
 
 “Just out of instinct, he tried to brush it off — not thinking,” Wright said. 
 
 An hour later, Green passed out at the station from overdosing on the white powder that police think was fentanyl. The drug can get into the body just through contact with the skin. 
 
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 “They called an ambulance for him and the ambulance responded for him,” Wright said. “They gave him one dose of Narcan here and then transported him to East Liverpool City Hospital, where they gave him three additional doses of Narcan.” 
 
 Captain Wright said Green is fine as of Sunday. 
 
 He added it’s a scary example of how the drug epidemic has forced police officers to change aspects of their job. 
 
 “We changed our procedures to where we used to field test drugs,” Wright said. “We don’t do that any longer because of accidental exposures.” 
 
 Buckle, of East Liverpool, and Collins, of Cleveland, are both charged with tampering with evidence. They each waived their rights at a preliminary hearing on Monday. Bond was set at $100,000 each. 
 
 Collins had an active arrest warrant out of Euclid. 
 
 East Liverpool cop overdose View as list View as gallery Open Gallery In May, an East Liverpool Police Officer overdosed after coming into contact with fentanyl during a traffic stop. ||||| An East Liverpool police officer is on the mend after accidentally overdosing during a traffic stop. 
 
 According to police, a suspicious vehicle was seen conducting what appeared to be a drug transaction on Spring Grove Street Friday night. 
 
 When officers tried to pull over the car the driver, 25-year-old Justin Buckle of East Liverpool, reportedly tried to leave, almost backing into an unmarked cruiser. 
 
 Police were able to stop the vehicle at West 8th Street and Lisbon Street, where they say they could see Buckle and the passenger moving around suspiciously inside. 
 
 The passenger, identified as 24-year-old Cortez Collins of Cleveland, was pulled from the car and found to have warrants out for his arrest possession of carfentanil, a dangerous opioid that is sometimes used as an elephant tranquilizer and has become a popular ingredient in potentially dangerous drug mixtures. 
 
 According to a report, while an officer had Buckle at gunpoint still inside the car, he began using his foot to rub a white powder into the carpet. 
 
 Patrolman Chris Green reportedly entered the car and stopped Buckle from destroying the evidence. 
 
 Officials say there were several piles of white powder throughout the front of the car, on Buckle's shoes, on the mouth of an open can of Mountain Dew. There were also small knotted baggies that appeared to have been torn open. 
 
 Police say that Collins and Buckle told them that the white powder was cocaine, but when they field tested the substance it came back negative. 
 
 The suspects then told officers that the drug was in fact fentanyl. 
 
 Just moments later, Patrolman Green reportedly started feeling sick and dizzy. It was determined that during the attempt to get Buckle out of the car, the fentanyl had gotten onto his skin. 
 
 Police tell 21 News that once back at the police station, the officer was given a dose of Narcan, the life-saving overdose reversal drug. 
 
 He was given three more Narcan treatments after he was taken to the hospital. 
 
 Fentanyl is known to be 50 times more potent than heroin, so much so that just a few granules can be known to cause an overdose. 
 
 According to the Drug Enforcement Agency, fentanyl poses a grave threat to law enforcement officials and first responders, as a lethal dose of fentanyl can be accidentally inhaled or absorbed through the skin. 
 
 Officers with the East Liverpool Police Department say they are shaken by the event, and how quickly things can go badly during stops of these kinds. 
 
 But they are relieved that Officer Green is ok. Officers say things could have been much worse. 
 
 Both Buckle and Collins have been charged with tampering with evidence. Police say they expect more charges will be filed.
– A police officer in Ohio got a lesson the hard way on just how potent the opioid fentanyl can be. The East Liverpool department says officer Chris Green got some of the powder on his skin after a drug bust and suffered an accidental overdose, reports WFMJ. He ended up in the hospital but is OK after multiple doses of the overdose-reversal drug Narcan. Green had participated in the arrest of two men Friday night who were suspected of conducting a drug deal inside a car. When cops blocked their vehicle, police say the men began trying to dispose of the evidence, and white powder ended up all over the inside of their car. Officers donned protective gear in collecting evidence from the scene, and accounts differ on how Green got some of the powder on his skin. The best guess is that some ended up on his shirt and he wiped it off with his bare hand, reports WKBN. "Just out of instinct, he tried to brush it off—not thinking," says a police captain. Fentanyl can be absorbed through the skin, and Green quickly began suffering the effects. Meanwhile, Justin Buckle, 25, and Cortez Collins, 24, face drug charges after their Friday night arrests.