Overdose prevention on campus: From abstinence to hurt discount

100 new cabinets containing free Narcan and fentanyl take a look at strips will likely be put in in dorms throughout campus beginning this week. 

College students started advocating for extra opioid hurt discount assets on campus following the loss of life of a scholar attributable to an unintentional fentanyl overdose 4 years in the past. Now, Narcan — the nasal spray that reverses an opioid overdose — and fentanyl take a look at strips are extensively out there on campus, together with in scholar residences.

Simply months after the coed’s overdose, in Spring 2020, Vilina Mehta ’22 M.S. ’23 M.D. ’28 took HUMBIO 163: “The Opioid Epidemic: Utilizing Neuroscience to Inform Coverage and Legislation” — a category that coated each the neuroscience behind opioid use and coverage initiatives that might handle the epidemic. 

The Campus Opioid Overdose Prevention Challenge (CO-OP) first started as a ultimate challenge for this class. Mehta — who didn’t know what fentanyl was, not to mention its nationwide impression, previous to taking the category — collaborated with classmates Max Moss ’21 and Nicole Tecia ’21, a third-year Ph.D. scholar in utilized physics, to create a coverage intervention to deal with one side of the opioid epidemic: hurt discount on faculty campuses. 

The trio began CO-OP with two targets: coaching the campus neighborhood to acknowledge and reply to overdoses and elevating consciousness in regards to the opioid epidemic. 

Mehta mentioned their work was initially met with resistance from the College, which on the time, took an abstinence method to regulating opioid use on campus. Nevertheless, following persistent advocacy and with college help, CO-OP started working with the Workplace of Substance Use Packages Training & Sources (SUPER) in September 2021. 

“Our work actually shifted the narrative at Stanford from being an abstinence-focused method to being like a harm-reduction method,” Mehta mentioned. “The aim of hurt discount is to save lots of lives and be certain that one thing like what occurred in winter 2020 doesn’t occur once more.”

The College didn’t reply to a request for touch upon its earlier hurt discount coverage. 

Mehta started educating scholar well being peer educators, referred to as PEERs, easy methods to lead their very own Narcan trainings final yr. Since February 2023, PEERs have held hour-long, biweekly Narcan trainings on the Nicely Home, a substance-free dorm. 

Natalie Lynch, the assistant dean of scholars and director of training and outreach for SUPER, mentioned trainings instruct members on easy methods to detect an overdose and easy methods to use Narcan and fentanyl take a look at strips. The trainings additionally cowl the historical past of the opioid epidemic and the assets out there to college students on campus. 

“We spend time working by completely different situations the place of us may encounter an opioid overdose and actually stroll by easy methods to handle that step-by-step, so that folk stroll away with extra of that confidence round managing that scenario and realizing what to do,” Lynch mentioned.

In line with SUPER, over 1,400 Stanford associates have participated in Narcan trainings since 2020. College students, workers and school can drop by the Nicely Home for trainings, and any affiliate can request a coaching for organizations they’re a part of. 

“We all know from previous surveys that 98% of scholars stroll away feeling like they’re assured in figuring out an opioid overdose and 99% of scholars mentioned, ‘Yep, I really feel ready to manage Narcan in an opioid overdose,’” Lynch mentioned. Individuals are given Narcan to hold with them round campus after the trainings.

Overdose detection and utilizing Narcan and fentanyl take a look at strips have additionally change into a compulsory a part of resident assistant (RA) coaching as of the 2022-23 college yr. Mehta has led RA trainings for the previous two years since SUPER employed her as a hurt discount specialist.

Ralph Castro, affiliate dean of scholars and director of SUPER, mentioned the aim is “at all times to extend entry to Narcan throughout campus.”

“It’s a secure medicine that saves lives,” Castro mentioned. “And so we intend to proceed to increase entry in each manner we will.” Narcan and the take a look at strip kits may also be discovered at SUPER’s workplace in Rogers Home.

Fentanyl take a look at strips, which might present ends in below 5 minutes, are one other key a part of the trainings. They’re out there on campus as a part of the Chem-X initiative. 

Chem-X founder Alec Manko ’23 observed the identical points as Mehta, Moss and Tecia relating to opioids on faculty campuses. Manko mentioned that the truth that fentanyl overdose is the main reason behind loss of life for younger Individuals was purpose sufficient to take motion and supply assets to assist college students perceive opioid use and entry to hurt discount methods on campus. 

Manko mentioned he approached “this as a design downside.”

“With such a stake within the matter, as that is one thing that impacts me, my neighborhood, my classmates [and] my college students, I imagine that everybody ought to care about [this] and everybody ought to be a champion for drug security and never simply look the opposite manner,” Manko mentioned.

Final yr, Manko started making the testing kits with three fentanyl take a look at strips, directions, a pipette, a microscooper and a mixing cap. He put them in just a few dorms to check the product, and by spring, SUPER and Chem-X collaborated and put the kits in over 20 dorms, specializing in Row homes.

Manko mentioned the aim of Chem-X is to not “preach abstinence” — as a substitute, it takes a proactive method to drug security. 

“The slogan is ‘buddies in opposition to fentanyl.’ It’s buddies serving to buddies keep alive and secure,” Manko mentioned. “How a problem like that is averted and the way we cease shedding so many lives to unintentional overdose is by friends standing up and interesting and serving to different friends.” 

The newly put in Chem-X cabinets embrace free fentanyl take a look at strip kits, Narcan and academic and reporting assets that may be accessed by a QR code. College students can even use the QR code to request for the station refills. 

Individuals of the Narcan trainings study that fentanyl take a look at strips are usually not fail-safe by a “chocolate chip cookie paradigm.” 

“Let’s say you narrow a tablet in half, and also you take a look at it, and it’s unfavourable, which suggests there’s no fentanyl,” Mehta mentioned. “That drug nonetheless might not essentially be secure as a result of like the opposite half of the tablet might need fentanyl in it.”

Castro mentioned it can be crucial for college kids to grasp how widespread fentanyl is. 

“It’s a really severe epidemic, and it is rather severe right here in Santa Clara County. We’re one of many epicenters of the opiate epidemic,” Castro mentioned. “One tablet can kill. You must anticipate fentanyl in any sort of illicit drug that you just get on the illicit market.”

Biweekly Narcan coaching periods resumed this yr on Monday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. on the Nicely Home. 

College students fighting substance abuse can search assistance on campus by the Workplace of Substance Use Packages Training & Sources (SUPER).

A earlier model of this text misstated the variety of new cabinets. The Day by day regrets this error.