Aug. 30, 2023 – Mississippi enacted a bill in March mandating a media campaign aimed at youth. California lawmakers are also considering requiring the state health department to make an overdose reversal drug available in schools. The bill cites 224 teens that died in California in 2021.
Since Congress passed landmark opioid-fighting legislation in 2018, the number of fatal overdoses has shot up by 64 percent, from about 67,000 to nearly 110,000 last year. At least 1,800 teens died between July 2019 and December 2021 from taking fentanyl, a 182 percent increase compared to the previous period, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
And there’s little sign the problem is abating with early CDC data this year showing a plateauing of overall fatal overdoses near all-time highs.
“There’s not enough prevention in schools. Resources are lacking for all types of substance use,” said Sara Lowry, a middle school social worker in northern Virginia whose 17-year-old son, Aiden, died of a fentanyl overdose in December.
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