The Daily Delegate

By Luca Ramos

Forum Media

According to UCLA Health, “An average of 22 adolescents 14 to 18 years of age died in the U.S. each week in 2022 from drug overdoses”. That is 88 people a month and 1056 adolescents a year, who could have lived long enough to see a better future. 7 out of the 8 present members of the forum committee for controlled substances say their school has a prominent drug problem. This combined with the “42% of pills tested for fentanyl” by the Drug Enforcement Administration which contained at least “2 mg of fentanyl, considered a potentially lethal dose” has created an epidemic of opioid overdose spreading around California and America as a whole.

The Committee for Controlled Substances has now acted to amend a bill to combat this issue of adolescent drug overdose. An act to amend Section 49414.3 of the Education Code, pertaining to naloxone in schools, mandates all secondary schools to carry naloxone, a life-saving anti-overdose drug. This bill formerly stated that the carrying of the life-saving drug naloxone would be optional. The most crucial, lifesaving amendment to this bill is changing naloxone from being implemented optionally to mandating the distribution of it to all secondary public schools, making the safety of at-risk students a real priority. Using a ratio of 1 naloxone kit (which combats one overdose) distributed per 75 students schools can begin to prioritize the safety of those who are at risk for fentanyl poisoning. The safety of those high-risk of fentanyl poisoning should not be optional. With this bill, those approximately 22 teens who die per week in the U.S. due to fentanyl do not deserve to die they deserve to be safe.

In the opinion of the author…

An act to amend Section 49414.3 of the Education Code, pertaining to naloxone in schools, would not only mandate the distribution of naloxone but the saving of lives. I encourage you to vote pro on this amendment because as you may have seen yourself in your school, there is an ever-growing issue of fentanyl poisoning which we as delegates must combat if the current California legislature can not.