Students Hoping to Make Narcan More Accessible Support Students in Recovery

Susie Lanter had yet to take her first class at Sonoma State University and was already taking steps to create a club to support students recovering from drugs, alcohol and other compulsive behaviors.

“This is my first semester at SSU, but over the summer I noticed there was no recovery club,” Lanter, 34, said. “So we started Sea wolves for recovery.»

“We” is Lanter and fellow Santa Rosa College transfer Martha Piña.

Lanter and Pigna, 50, were both active participants Students for Recovery club at SRJC. They understand the support that an active recovery club can provide.

And part of that is because for some students, no matter where they are in their sobriety, it can be difficult to just walk in the door.

Piña met with SSU students who had declined the fledgling club’s weekly meetings in Salazar Hall but agreed to have coffee with her.

Some students have made the transition to sobriety but worry about how their peers will view them. Other students want to help take the first step toward sobriety. Perhaps more students want to know how to support loved ones.

Wherever students are, Lanter and Piña want the club to be what they need and meet them where they are.

“If someone needs help, I really want to be able to offer it,” said Lanter, who has been sober for 10 years. “I want them to know that there is another way to live. We have life experience. There are other things we can do besides having to deal with our addiction.”

And part of that mission is to get Narcan into the hands of students.

Narcan is the brand name for naloxone, a medication that, when used quickly and correctly, can reverse an opioid overdose. It usually comes in the form of a nasal spray and, importantly, has no harmful effects when used on someone who is not overdosing, but rather unconscious or asleep.

More than 107,000 people have died from drug overdoses in 2022 in the US, and 3 out of 4 deaths were attributed to opioids. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 220 people died every day in 2021, up 16% from the previous year.

California law now requires campuses to provide access to naloxone.

Effective January 1, 2023, the Campus Opioid Safety Act requires health centers on the campuses of most public colleges and universities in California to offer free Narcan to students.

At Sonoma State, Narcan is available to students at the Student Health Center. Students cannot obtain naloxone from school officials without completing 30 minutes of training.

Both Lanter and Pigna believe that following the letter of the law is not enough. They advocate for SSU to make Narcan more available through peer-to-peer programs like Seawolves for Recovery, rather than requiring students to go through official university channels.

“That’s the goal,” Piña said.

Visiting the Narcan student office can be intimidating for some students, they said. The stigma still exists.

“I wouldn’t have gone to the student health center before,” said Piña, who has been sober for six years.

As accidental overdoses and fentanyl poisonings rise, Narcan becomes a life-saving tool. According to them, there should be no shame or judgment in promoting Narcan, there should be support.

The advent of fentanyl-laced drugs has made youthful experimentation increasingly deadly.

The pills sold through social media or passed on by friends appear to be legitimate prescription drugs such as Percocet, OxyContin, Xanax or Adderall. But these are increasingly sophisticated counterfeits, made on the cheap and laced with fentanyl. synthetic drug According to scientists, it can be 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. California Department of Public Health.

“Being curious is not a luxury,” Piña said.

Michelle Leopold’s son Trevor died in 2019 during his junior year at Sonoma State University. Trevor, who had long struggled with marijuana use disorder, thought he had bought oxycodone, a painkiller, Leopold said.

It was fentanyl.

Today, Michelle, who regularly speaks to audiences of high school and college students about the dangers of experimentation in today’s drug world, wears a button that notifies people that she is carrying Narcan.

Drugs like fentanyl make carrying Narcan a vital safety precaution.

Moe Phillips, SSU’s director of student services, disagrees. Phillips brings it Leopold is on campus to perform. at freshman orientation.

Narcan is available on the SSU campus, the Green Music Center, the Recreation Center, athletic department posts and other locations, Phillips said.