Washington high schools set to receive Narcan amidst rising opioid overdose rates

This morning we are talking about the opioid crisis that is hitting home for so many parents in our state. Just last year, two students in the Bellevue School District overdosed after smoking from a vape pen that had fentanyl in it. The teens were revived, but it was obviously terrifying for their families. Mary Nahum spoke with the state's chief science officer and pediatrician on Arc Seattle at 10 o'clock about how the Department of Health is working to make sure all public schools in the state have access to naloxone, the overdose reversal medication. Tal, thanks for joining us this evening. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Can you please tell us more about this effort to get Narcan in all schools in the state? Sure. Well, Narcan is a brand name for naloxone, which is an overdose reversal medication that can be given to somebody who's overdosed on an opioid. And we are distributing naloxone because we want to save kids' lives from opioid overdose. Opioid overdoses have increased nearly tripled between 2016 and 2022. And a lot of this has been driven by fentanyl, which is a synthetic opioid that is so potent that even just one counterfeit pill laced with fentanyl can contain enough drug to cause overdose and death. You know, the seriousness of opioids, fentanyl in the community, it's been in the news for a while now. It might be difficult for parents, some adults, to talk about the need to have this medication, this drug in our schools. You're talking elementary schools, middle schools, high schools. What is the situation with students and powerful, deadly opiates? Well, this is a program for high schools, high schools, alternative high schools, and programs that serve high school age students. And it's a program where schools can order through their educational service district two kits of naloxone, each containing two doses of the medication. And it's actually distributed through a system that was developed during the pandemic to distribute COVID-19 tests. So educational service districts have agreed to help distribute naloxone to high schools that request it. It's totally voluntary. And, you know, fortunately, overdose events are very rare on school property. But as a pediatrician and a parent, I know that teens can be impulsive. Sometimes they can experiment and be very curious about substances. And the landscape today is very different than it was several years ago, in that there are more of these counterfeit medications that people may not know contain fentanyl, and yet contain enough fentanyl to cause overdose and death. Sadly, we have covered that very thing in local news, in our own community, where students purchase something that they think they're, you know, they think they know what it is, but they didn't. And it was laced with fentanyl, and it had deadly consequences. And we've had grieving parents speak out and share these painful stories. But to repeat what you just said, though, overdose cases in schools, it is very rare. That's correct. Overdose events on school property are very rare. But it's important for schools to be prepared, just as they are prepared for other medical emergencies. Again, Mary Nam had that conversation with Dr. Tao Sheng-Kwang Gett on Arc Seattle at 10 o'clock for more of their stories. You can tune in Monday through Friday at 10 o'clock p.m. You can also find more Arc Seattle content on our YouTube page. Just scan that QR code that just popped up on your screen using your cell phone's camera. I was sitting there watching that interview thinking, it is mind-boggling to me that we're at to the point where naloxone has to be dispersed to high schools in the region because of the prevalence of opioids or fentanyl in the schools, even though it's rare. But the fact that that's happening is just mind-blowing to me. I was quite shocked as well. It's an important conversation to have. I'm glad that Mary conducted that interview so that parents are aware and that they're at home as well talking to their students about the consequences, their students, their kids, talking to them about the consequences of taking substances. Even though sometimes they're laced and you don't know what it is, right, a vape pen, you can never be too careful. It's all about saving lives. That's what it's all about. But again, it's just sad to me that we're to this level here in Western Washington.