With the opioid crisis in the United States, Narcan is emerging as a short-term solution to combat overdoses. This nasal spray can now be found in teenagers’ backpacks.
Equipment, books, notebooks… and antidotes to revive an overdose victim. This is what we now find in the school bags of some young Americans. Narcan, a naloxone-based nasal spray, is increasingly finding its way into the daily lives of American teenagers whose country is plagued by the opioid crisis, particularly fentanyl, a drug up to 50 times more powerful than naloxone. “Heroin”.
In schools, students choose to bring their own anti-overdose kit, consisting of 4 mg naloxone solution already in an applicator. Some are even present in classrooms. At Arlington High School near Washington, the use of this nasal spray is quickly explained: Last year, the police intervened in seven overdoses. One student even died. To combat this phenomenon, students have addressed the problem by setting up training for 350 of their classmates on the use of Narcan, whose use remains regulated in high school.
Students who bring naloxone to school still must complete training and have parental consent, said Darrell Sampson, director of student services for Arlington City Public Schools. “We have always had to deal with drugs in schools. But none of these substances were as cheap to produce, as deadly even in small doses, and as addictive as opioids and fentanyl,” he adds.
An inadequate remedy
If naloxone helps combat overdoses, its introduction into high schools is not unanimous, with some parents believing the molecule trivializes or justifies hard drug use. Politically, the opioid crisis is divisive. But according to Keith Humphreys, a researcher at Stanford University, “there is increasing support (editor’s note) for naloxone in political trends, and I believe this is a public health victory.” However, the researcher sees Narcan as only a partial solution. According to him, authorities need to allocate more public resources to young people’s mental health to help them manage their emotions or build healthier relationships. Naloxone can be used in the event of an overdose, but cannot prevent addiction problems.
Authorities and communities are struggling to decide how to regulate the use of opioids. For example, in Portland, a progressive city in Oregon, the decision was made to reduce penalties for drug use to such an extent that open-air markets for illegal products began to appear, also with an increase in overdoses. Conversely, other states are opting for stricter laws. In Tennessee, after three high school student overdoses, two of which were fatal, the sole survivor was charged with murdering his classmates.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), from March 2022 to March 2023, the United States recorded 110,000 overdose-related deaths, two-thirds of which were due to fentanyl use. According to the CDC, these youth deaths increased by 94% between 2019 and 2020. The reason is the greater “availability of illegally produced synthetic fentanyl”.