It's a life-saving drug that can almost instantly reverse a drug overdose, but the question is whether Narcan should be readily available at schools.
On Tuesday, Santa Clara County supervisors will be asked to weigh in on that question and whether to provide additional funding for fentanyl prevention resources in schools and throughout the county.
Narcan is an FDA-approved medication used to treat people for fentanyl or other opioid overdoses.
In Santa Clara County, it's available at some nonprofit groups, but Supervisor Cindy Chavez wants to see it be more widely available at bars, restaurants and schools.
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"We're saving as many lives as possible, particularly for young people that are really not knowing what they are ingesting," she said. "They don't know the risks, that they really are playing Russian roulette literally with these street drugs that they’re taking."
Supervisors plan to ask county staff to work with schools and nonprofit groups to determine the need for Narcan and set aside funding to make it available. They'll also look at the possibility of providing fentanyl test strips at schools. The strips allow someone to test street drugs to determine whether they've been cut with another deadly substance.
"The more we can do preventative work, educate and provide the tools to families, schools and youth, I think the better off we are in terms of bending this curve and reducing the number of young people that are dying or overdosing," Santa Clara County Behavioral Health Services administrator Bruce Copley said.
The number of fentanyl deaths in the county has grown steadily over the past five years, according to the district attorney's office.
"For this year, we had approximately 41 fentanyl-related poisoning deaths," Deputy District Attorney Ed Liang said.
Chavez said the goal is not to condone drug use but to prevent drug-related deaths. She noted that Narcan and drug test strips would only be available after each local school board and school district formally outlined a plan and got parent input.
The hope is that county staff would come up with recommendations in August and local school districts could address their own proposals in September.
