By Michael Lyle
The Nevada System of Higher Education lacks an official policy on making naloxone, the medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, readily available on college campuses.
University of Nevada Reno public health graduate student Madalyn Larson, who co-chairs the Northern Nevada Harm Reduction Alliance, believes there is a need for one.
“Doing my seven consecutive years at UNR, I’ve noticed a lot of drug use,” she told lawmakers at on the interim Committee on Health and Human Services last week. “Is it not really unusual because college and young adult years are a time for experimentation. What is unusual is the inability to find access to harm reduction tools across the university’s campus to empower drugs to use drugs safely.”
The request comes as Nevada, like many states, is dealing with an opioid epidemic and increasing deaths related to fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin.
A Southern Nevada Health District published in March reported that between 2020 and 2023 deaths involving “concurrent use of fentanyl with methamphetamine or cocaine increased 97% from 73 deaths to 144.”
Nationwide, deaths involving fentanyl have increased 279% nationally from 2016 to 2021, according to the report.
SNHD has warned that overdose deaths for people under 25 has been increasing, in particular in association with counterfeit pills, like Adderall, or substances like cocaine. In those cases, people were unaware the drugs were laced with fentanyl.
Though there isn’t data on the number of NSHE students who have overdosed, Larson said “the 15 to 24 age range is one of the top demographics of opioid poisonings and opioid overdose deaths across our states.”
SNHD has made naloxone, often known by the brand name Narcan, as well as testing strips and other harm reduction tools more accessible throughout Southern Nevada, including at public health vending machines.
UNLV’s Student Wellness Center lists on its website the availability of test strips to detect fentanyl and xylazine, a tranquilizer approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for veterinary use that has been used to cut fentanyl.
UNR’s Student Health Center doesn’t offer test strips.
Neither health center currently offers Narcan for free.
“I don’t want one of my fellow college students to die because they or their friends didn’t know where to get naloxone or how to use it,” said Larson. “This type of scenario is unacceptable because of the tools we have access to in our state.”
Any efforts to bring tools that reduce the number of overdoses would build on previous legislative efforts, she added.
In 2021, lawmakers unanimously passed Assembly Bill 205, which authorized school nurses and other trained staff in K-12 schools to administer opioid reversal drugs.
Nevada wouldn’t be new to developing a policy around overdose prevention on college campuses.
Other states, including Connecticut and Washington, have passed similar legislation in recent years requiring their higher education systems to develop plans around making harm reduction tools and overdose reversal medications more accessible to students.
The recommendation for policy that aids the availability of naloxone on Nevada college lines up with recommendations by the Attorney General’s Substance Use Response Working Group, or SURG, for reducing opioid overdoses.
“This report includes recommendations for the use of opioid settlement dollars to fund stable and sustainable sources of overdose reversal medication,” Larson said.
