The White House is urging all schools to carry the emergency overdose reversal drug naloxone and train students and faculty on how to administer it.
A letter from the US education department and the White House’s national drug control policy office, first obtained by Axios, urged schools to “focus on measures to prevent youth drug use and ensure that every school has naloxone and has prepared its students and faculty to use it.
“Our schools are on the frontlines of this epidemic, but our teachers and students can be equipped with tools to save lives,” the education secretary, Miguel Cardona, and Rahul Gupta, the director of the national drug control policy office, wrote in the letter.
According to an education department spokesperson, the letter will be sent to every state education agency, intergovernmental groups, and local, state and national education associations, Axios reports.
“Overdose deaths among adolescents doubled from 2019 to 2020 and continue to rise, even though youth rates of drug use have remained stagnant. That’s because a teenager today can log onto social media with a smartphone and buy what they think is an opioid pain medicine or a prescription stimulant to help them study – and instead die from one pill that actually has fentanyl in it. Just one pill,” the letter said.
“And data show that two-thirds of adolescent drug poisoning deaths occurred with a potential bystander nearby, but naloxone was often not administered,” it added, citing a recent study that found that among persons aged 14–18 years, overdose deaths increased 94% from 2019 to 2020 and 20% from 2020 to 2021.
The study also found that the median monthly overdose deaths among persons between 10 and 19 years old increased 109% from July–December 2019 to July–December 2021.
Moreover, the study found that potential bystanders were present during two-thirds of overdose deaths among adolescents but only 30% of the deaths had evidence that naloxone was administered.
Naloxone is medication approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA), which is designed to rapidly reverse an opioid overdose from drugs such as heroin, oxycodone, morphine or fentanyl. It is a temporary treatment and public health officials say urgent medical care should be sought as soon as possible in the event of an overdose, including where an emergency naloxone dose is given.
“Studies show that naloxone access can reduce overdose death rates, that its availability does not lead to increases in youth drug use, and that it causes no harm if used on a person who is not overdosing on opioids,” the letter said.
“It is important to note that individuals should not be afraid to administer naloxone, as most states have Good Samaritan Laws protecting bystanders who aid at the scene of an overdose,” it added.
In March, the FDA approved the sale of Narcan, a brand of naloxone, without a prescription, making it the first opioid reversal drug to be sold over the counter.
Recent reports reveal that schools across the country have started to stock up on Narcan and allow students to bring their own supply of the overdose reversal drug.
In March, the Gazette in Iowa reported that schools in the state have started adding naloxone to their medical emergency tool kits after a state law passed last year that allows schools to stock and administer the drug in cases of opioid overdose.
In May, Axios reported a number of schools in the Washington DC area also added Narcan to address the overdose crisis, with several school administrators and safety coordinators telling the outlet that they have emergency boxes of naloxone stocked in middle and high schools.
A CBS report in June revealed that New York City public school nurses have started to receive Narcan training.
Meanwhile, high schools and school buses in Fresno, California, have supplies of Narcan, ABC30 reported in August.
