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Federal legislation could bring Narcan units to more Washington schools

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Schools may soon have better resources to respond to student drug overdoses under legislation introduced by U.S. House Republicans last week.

House Resolution 7189, titled the “School Resource Officers Save Lives Act,” incorporates a new tool into the nation’s fight against opioid abuse. U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-WA, introduced the legislation to create a pilot program for Narcan administration in schools.

“Fatal drug overdoses … are on the rise in our Central Washington communities,” Newhouse said in a statement last week. “This alarming trend has tragically taken the lives of students in Washington state and across the United States.”

Newhouse pointed to school resource officers as a frontline defense for student overdoses at schools. HR 7189 would allow school districts to acquire grants to train staff in purchasing and administering Narcan kits.

In his statement, Newhouse cited multiple recent school overdoses. Two weeks ago, two Portland high school students overdosed on campus within 24 hours of each other; another student in Colorado Springs overdosed last week and died shortly after while in class.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, from 2019 to 2020 people aged 15-24 experienced the greatest percentage increase in drug overdose deaths, 49%, compared to other age groups. The demographic had around 11.2 deaths per 100,000 population in 2019 compared to 16.7 in 2020.

According to the bill, 50% of school districts selected to participate in the pilot program must be in rural areas. The legislation reauthorizes the State Opioid Response Grants Program for two years at $5 million to fund the new program.

When drafting the legislation, Newhouse reached out to Kevin Fuhr, Moses Lake Police chief and school board president. The two met in person to discuss the bill’s potential impact and how it could be strengthened.

Fuhr suggested that school security personnel be equipped with Narcan in addition to resource officers and nurses. While his resource officers already carry Narcan units in schools, other staff less equipped would be better suited to respond to a student overdose.

“The high school and middle schools have security officers and they’re in the building more than the school resource officers,” Fuhr said. “If there was any issue at one of the schools, they actually beat us to the response.”

Fentanyl and opioid abuse is rising and with it is the number of children and younger individuals who take family members’ prescription medications. Fuhr said having Narcan on hand is another tool for the community to respond to the opioid and drug overdose crisis.

However, Fuhr noted that more work is needed to address drug use preemptively. He said the legislature passed a bill increasing penalties for theft of catalytic converters, which are often sold for drug money, but did not address why people are turning to substances in the first place.

“We keep focusing on a ton of these Band-Aid fixes,” he said, “but no one is willing to step in and say what is causing the underlying problem.”

Fuhr said he could neither confirm nor deny any student overdoses that may have happened in the area due to confidentiality. However, he believes a student may have overdosed two or three years ago but was transported to the hospital before police could respond.

MLPD has carried Narcan since 2017 and uses it every so often, he said. Emergency medical service personnel also carry the wonder drug, sometimes using it more often than police because of faster response times.

While Narcan is best used within two or three years, Fuhr said his department makes use of the expired doses; MLDP regularly hands out expired units to homeless individuals so they can potentially respond if no one else can get there first.

“I give those out,” Fuhr said, “so they can help keep each other alive.”