By Journalist Alexandria Sapien (RSC)
According to the State Department of Health, opioids are the most common class of drugs involved in overdose death in Oklahoma, with prescription drug overdose killing more Oklahomans than car accidents. There is a 22% rise of opioid overdose in Oklahoma and a 9% rise in Oklahoma country alone.
This act provided by S. Garners (OBU) “Saving Youth from Overdoses” will allow any school in Oklahoma to enable school personnel and administrators with the proper training and opiate antagonists to prevent anything such as an overdose or what is thought to be an overdose.
Narcan or Naloxone (Opiate antagonists) are not lethal or detrimental in any way if said youth is not experiencing an overdose.
S. Garners (OBU) felt close and strongly behind this bill as she has a family member involved in the education system and personally witnessed a young student overdosing with only a limited number of school personnel allowed to administer opiate antagonists.
The funding for this is completely free as there will be an agreement between the Oklahoma State Department of Health and Oklahoma Public School districts.
Any qualified school employee, is authorized to maintain opioid antagonists to administer emergency first aid to a student who is experiencing an opioid-related drug overdose and does not have a prior written authorization for administering this medication.
All school personnel will be required to complete the Intranasal Naloxone Training provided by the Oklahoma State Department of Health on an annual basis.
The Oklahoma State Department of Health will enter into a Memorandum of Agreement with all Oklahoma Public School Districts to provide Intranasal Naloxone training materials and Intranasal Naloxone kits.
This bill was passed through an unanimous vote Although this bill has already been passed in the senate during the time of 2019,which only authorized nurses and designated school personnel to give narcan in the case without a physician order, what makes S. Garners (OBU) bill a little different, it is given any and essentially all school personnel the authority with the proper training to administer opiate antagonists to perform life-saving measures allowing time to seek emergency medical care.