Consider This from NPR - Young people are dying of opioid overdoses. Are students and campuses prepared?

Episode Date: August 11, 2024

Overdose death rates have spiked dramatically for young adults, rising 34 percent between 2018 and 2022, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Yet, there are ways to mitigate the risk of overdose, and even ways to reverse it.Notably there's Narcan.It's a brand of the medication naloxone, and it's often used in the form of nasal spray. If administered quickly, it can fully reverse an opioid overdose.Are college campuses and their students prepared?For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

For Monica Vera Schubert, getting insurance to cover addiction treatment was a long road. She went through the process for her son, Bobby. They finally prevailed, and Bobby got sober. And Vera Schubert, a single mom, was immensely grateful. Because my son is alive. I appreciate every moment I have with him. Can I always tell him, Bobby, I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud of you. And he goes, Mom, I'm proud of you. He's a wonderful kid. That's Vera Schubert speaking with NPR reporter Yuki Noguchi four years ago. Bobby went on to resume his studies and he got into his dream school, UCLA. He joined his activist mom making

videos that warned of the prescription drug abuse that had entrapped him. I can say I love you to my mom now. And I used to not be able to say that. At least look her in the eye and say that. This spring, Monica Vera Schubert got back in touch with NPR. Bobby had relapsed, and then on April 12th, his college roommate found him slumped over his desk in the dorm. His mother says he'd taken fake Xanax, likely laced with fentanyl. Bobby Schubert was 29 when he died. On that devastating night, his mother wailed as officials drove off with her son's body. She felt shunned, she says. No one from UCLA, the police, or the medical examiner would speak to her or console her.

My son passed away there in the dorms on the university and nobody wants to say anything. In the weeks that followed, Vera Schubert's grief turned to torment. The dorm that my son is at, was there a Narcan there? No. Consider this. Drug overdose is the top killer of young adults. Are universities doing enough to prevent it? From NPR, I'm Ping Huang. It's considered this from NPR. Overdose deaths have spiked dramatically for young adults. They rose 34% between 2018 and 2022, according to recent CDC data. But there are ways to mitigate the risk of overdose and even reverse it. Notably, there's Narcan. It's a brand of the medication naloxone, and it's often used in the form of nasal spray.

If Narcan is administered quickly, it can fully reverse an opioid overdose. Last year, California's Campus Opioid Safety Act took effect. It requires most state and community colleges to provide education and phrenoloxone to students. UCLA says it's compliant, and that's where Bobby Schubert, who you heard about earlier, was a student. NPR's Yuki Nog Gucci picks up the story from here. Monica Vera Schubert says in the 10 minutes it took paramedics to arrive after her son Bobby was found, no one near him had access to naloxone. For 10 minutes, maybe more, my son just laid there.

There's no Narcan, he just laid there. Would he still be here? Maybe. The Schubert's tragedy speaks to the need for greater public health response to overdoses that are not only increasing, but affecting a broader range of people, many of whom may not even realize they're ingesting opioids. Fentanyl comes pressed in pills resembling those that treat anxiety or ADHD, for example. It can be mixed invisibly into drugs like cocaine. That's making casual or even inadvertent drug use even more lethal. And the younger generation bears scars from losing friends or witnessing overdoses. Yet public health advocates say too few college

campuses have specific overdose prevention plans, either through mandatory training, naloxone distribution, or kits that test drugs for the presence of fentanyl. Christina Freibott says a big reason for that lack of action is a lack of data. Freibad, a researcher at Boston University, says colleges often don't know how many overdoses occur on campus or even when students die of overdose. There's nothing that tracks specifically college campuses. They are not always aware of the cause of student death if it was an overdose or something else. Medical privacy often shields that information. And even if students are revived from an overdose, students are unlikely to report such incidents to the school. Susan Murphy says as a result, college administrators remain willfully

blind. That lack of reporting data allows people to continue to put blinders on. Of course, you don't think it's a problem until you have to watch them put a student in a body bag. Which Murphy herself had to do when she was assistant dean of the pharmacy school at the University of Charleston in South Carolina. That loss and others prompted her to leave academia five years ago to head the Drug Intervention Institute, which promotes overdose prevention training and provides kits with videos to hang on the walls of schools or buses. Naloxone itself is inexpensive and harmless. It has no effect on anyone not overdosing.

But Murphy says college leaders often worry that making naloxone very visible on campus might tarnish their image. What will prospective parents think? Does it appear to condone drug use? Murphy says some schools understand the urgency, including all colleges in her home state of West Virginia. We had some really brave college presidents who said, I don't care what the perception is. This has to happen. It's a scary time to be a young person, I think. It's a scary time to be a parent, for sure. Monica Vera Schubert, the grief-stricken mother, says she thinks naloxone belongs on every floor of every residence hall. She met with school officials, she says, one of whom told her of three other known overdose deaths on UCLA's campus over the years.

Dead from an overdose? Did you guys make any reform, any policy changes? She goes, no. From that first student, there should have been a change. And my son might still be alive if there were changes made, if there was new policy. UCLA declined an interview, but in an emailed statement, it said its various overdose outreach programs include providing free naloxone and fentanyl test kits in more than 20 campus locations, including residence halls. The school also plans to expand that availability before the new school year begins this month. Across the country, colleges' response to overdose prevention has been mixed.

Some proactive schools are investing. Some use their own pharmacy school students, for example, to train other students to recognize overdose and administer naloxone. Others, including Virginia Tech, University of Georgia, and colleges across West Virginia, hang boxes containing free naloxone and how-to videos in places like libraries and dorms, alongside first aid kits and fire extinguishers. Christina Freibott, a public health researcher at Boston University, says some schools even distribute fentanyl test strips so students can test their drugs before using them. One thing that I wish is that colleges were aware of what other colleges were doing. And if there was like a resource that showed all of the different approaches that all these schools are taking to this, it would normalize the efforts that are

going on. Theo Kurzweil is a former paramedic and firefighter in long-term recovery himself. He founded a group called End Overdose to train young people to use naloxone. His group works directly with students, bypassing school administrations, to work on campus. So far, it has 28 college chapters, with students at 75 others looking to start new ones. I think that answers how big of a problem it is. The students know. The students know. That's why we focus on working with the students, because the students are more motivated to make change, typically, than the campuses. He says anti-drug messaging has largely overlooked the realities of life most young adults face.

It's their peers, he says, who have greatest credibility. When you have one person that understands the community and the culture and provide the information in a level that people not only understand but are willing to receive, that's the biggest part, you can really make a lot of progress. Peer-led training also provides support for bystanders, students who've tried to revive unresponsive roommates or friends. Madeline Ward, who lost a middle school friend to overdose, says that experience leaves terrifying scars. I feel like I was very, very aware of the fact that fentanyl in particular is a very big issue and something that I kind of needed to look out for for myself and for my friends.

Yet Ward's freshman year at UCLA, she says everyone seemed unprepared. When I got to college, it was very scary because I didn't feel like that many people knew what Narcan was or that many people were scared about taking drugs that were laced with fentanyl. So Ward co-founded an end overdose chapter handing out naloxone and teaching others to recognize signs of overdose. After every single training we have so many people who've been really deeply impacted by overdose and overdose loss. Ward who graduated in May says things are changing. During one of her last classes, a professor mentioned Narcan. She asked everyone who was carrying Narcan to raise their hand, and it was probably like a 200-person lecture hall, and I think like 50 people raised their

hand, which was huge to me because I didn't know a single person who carried Narcan freshman year. Which she says means everyone's much safer. Yuki Noguchi, NPR News. We still help you break down a major story of the day, but you'll also get to know our producers and hosts and some moments of joy from the All Things Considered team. You can sign up at npr.org slash consider this newsletter. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Ping Huang.