COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina is continuing its effort to combat opioid overuse, this time, by bringing potentially life saving care into schools.
A new law allows participating districts to offer naloxone, or Narcan-brand, nasal spray to students and staff through the school nurses office. The drug is used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) is helping lead the effort alongside the S.C. Department of Education and says, right now, school resource officers have access to Narcan, but allowing nurses to also carry the product saves time, if an emergency were to take place.
“Thousands of lives are being taken in South Carolina every year, including, you know, unfortunately, some of our youth and teenagers," Dr. Brannon Traxler, DHEC Director of Public Health, said. "There has not been evidence to show that having Naloxone or Narcan availability is increasing drug use … Expanding access to these emergency medications is going to help save lives.”
Participating South Carolina schools will be provided two free boxes of Narcan, for a total of four doses per school.
Richland School District Two joins more than 800 public, private, and charter schools already signed up.
“We have students that may experiment with medications they get from home and there's no age limit on that -- a little kid is just as likely to see something and put it in their mouth as an older child, or an employee," Dawn MacAdams, president-elect of the S.C. Association of School Nurses and Coordinator of Health Services at Richland Two, said. "So, school nurses are really excited about being able to have Narcan in the schools, because it's not if something happens, it's a matter of when it happens.”
Opioids are meant for pain management, but the State of South Carolina says, too often they're "just plain killers." Across the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says nearly 645,000 people died from an opioid overdose between 1999 and 2021. A grant from the CDC is funding the Narcan schools are receiving, according to DHEC.
While some students have overdosed on opioids, DHEC says overdoses happen more often among faculty and staff.
Narcan will also be available to staff, parents and campus visitors, as necessary.
Contact Kayland Hagwood at khagwood@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.