CADE — St. Martin Parish Sheriff Ronnie Theriot is a big advocate of the Taser gun. In the two years his deputies have carried them, officer and arrest-related injuries have decreased considerably in St. Martin, he says proudly.

On Wednesday, Theriot showed a room full of police officers and emergency responders here just how comfortable he is with the device, volunteering for the first time to experience five seconds of Taser’s electricity.

“Honestly, it was intense,” Theriot said. “You lose control. It is, in a way, excruciating. It was five seconds, but it seemed like five minutes.”

Dr. Jeff Ho speaks Wednesday morning in Cade at a TASER conference. JIM MUSTIAN / THE DAILY IBERIAN Advertisement

The St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office invited local law enforcement officials to an all-day symposium Wednesday to learn a little more about the stun gun that is showing up more and more on police officers’ utility belts and in lawsuits across the country.

Several guest speakers lectured about the advantages of Taser, and guests also heard from a doctor who gave advice about how to avoid arrest-related deaths.

“I’m a firm believer that Taser will save many lives,” said Jim Cairns, the deputy chief coroner for the province of Ontario and veteran investigator of Taser-related incidents in Canada. “No death in Canada can be attributed to the use of Tasers.”

Cairns gave a profanity-laden presentation about a controversial medical condition known as excited delirium, arguing many deaths blamed on Taser are actually caused by the condition, often a combination of psychiatric illness, street drugs, cocaine use and alcohol withdrawal.

“Excited delirium is a medical emergency with a very high mortality rate whether police are involved or not,” he said.

Dr. Jeff Ho of the Hen-nepin County Medical Center in Minnesota spoke at length about arrest-related death and blamed the media for sensationalizing claims Taser has killed people. He said arrest-related death is a phenomenon documented as early as 1849.

Ho also provided several statistics he said speak to the effectiveness and safety of Taser, noting no deaths have occurred in more than 675,000 voluntary ex-posures to the device.

In December, Amnesty International released a report in which it blamed Taser for contributing to or causing 334 deaths.

Taser says about 75 percent of law enforcement agencies around the country are using its devices. In Iberia Parish, officials say the use of Taser guns has been slowed because they are prohibitively expensive.