When a student fainted in an apparent overdose at a Sacramento high school last fall, officials were able to provide urgent first aid by administering a newly stocked dose of the opioid reversal medicine naloxone.
“The benefits were quite rapid,” said Victoria Flores, a Sacramento Unified School District health administrator. “A person’s life was saved.”
Such events, while relatively rare, are driving a new movement in California to not only equip school campuses with naloxone, marketed as Narcan, but also enable students to carry and administer the drug.
With overdoses nearing record highs due to the abundance of fentanyl, Gov. Gavin Newsom requested $3.5 million in his last budget plan to supply middle and high schools with naloxone — despite the fact that a probable deficit looms and other programmes face layoffs.
“This is a key priority,” Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee stated last month. “There isn’t a single parent out there who doesn’t see the gravity of the fentanyl issue.”
The country’s second-largest school system isn’t going to wait.
Last October, Los Angeles Unified installed naloxone in all of its classrooms. And, this week, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho stated that the district will allow kids to carry the overdose antidote in order to combat the “devastating epidemic” caused by fentanyl.
“We remain dedicated to extending access, education, and training for this life-saving emergency drug,” Carvalho wrote to parents in a memo on Tuesday.
Fentanyl, which is nearly 50 times stronger than heroin, is almost completely to blame for a rise in youth overdose deaths in California, where such events were previously uncommon.
Some young individuals purchase pills from sellers on social media, believing they are pure oxycodone, Xanax, or Adderall, but they are increasingly mixed with fentanyl. Others intentionally consume the substance, putting their lives in danger when just 2 milligrammes can be fatal.
“It’s not that more young people are consuming drugs. It’s because the drug supply has become more lethal,” explained Chelsea Shover, a UCLA epidemiologist.
Even the most ardent supporters of equipping schools with naloxone recognise the limitations of this method to rescue kids on the verge of death, especially if the drug intake occurs off campus.
California, like Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Washington, which mandate public high schools to maintain naloxone on hand, will almost certainly be able to save some overdoes. However, according to CDC cause of death statistics, not all.
“To be honest, I think having Narcan in schools is a Band-Aid,” said Assemblymember Joe Patterson, a Republican from a Sacramento suburb who is sponsoring legislation requiring schools to keep the drug. “It’s actually just a treatment to save lives when youngsters are poisoned. But we must first prevent children from getting poisoned.”
Schools can obtain naloxone for free through California Department of Public Health funds, and some have already used it 12 times in Los Angeles, at least once in Santa Clara County, and once in Sacramento this school year, according to school district spokespeople.
“If you have free and easy access to something like this, why not put it in places where you can save a life?” Flores inquired.
However, in the lack of a state mandate, many districts do not provide it. Moreover, despite his support for greater naloxone funding, Newsom has not stated if he supports legislation requiring schools to maintain the antidote medicine on hand.
Keeping a couple dosages in a central position within a school is merely the “basic minimum,” according to Shover.
Teenagers are more likely than school nurses to notice their peers overdosing in time to intervene, and those whose pals may be at risk should carry doses, according to the epidemiologist. This logic, together with the county department of public health’s encouragement, drove LAUSD’s new policy.
Legislators in California are also contemplating legislation that would force stadiums, amusement parks, concert venues, and universities to stock naloxone. The medication is accessible in the form of a nasal spray and poses no risk to those who use it, even if they are not overdosing.
In an effort to reduce online trafficking of “fentapills” to young individuals, some legislators have proposed new rules for social media businesses. Republicans have also submitted legislation to increase jail sentences for fentanyl traffickers and dealers, which will be difficult to sell to the statehouse’s Democratic supermajority, which has been striving to cut incarceration rates following the decades-long drug war.
Changes to student health education are conspicuously absent from the law. California does not need schools to provide separate health programmes, let alone fentanyl education.
State Sen. Dave Cortese’s measure would compel schools to address opioid overdoses in their safety plans and would require the state to offer overdose training and prevention materials to districts, mirroring actions done by schools in Santa Clara County, where he lives.
Despite his support for both, his legislation would not require schools to teach pupils about the drug or train instructors to administer naloxone. Changing curricula or requiring teacher training has historically been difficult and time-consuming in Sacramento.
“I think the bill takes a little bit of a step forward — short of compulsory training, which would be ideal, really,” said Cortese (D-San Jose).
Even though other fentanyl initiatives are politically risky, bringing naloxone into schools has garnered bipartisan support, making the mandate likely to pass the Legislature.
“Ideally,” Shover pointed out, “we should have done it a long time ago.”
