The pandemic has exacerbated the use, overdoses and deaths of illicit drug use; primarily among our youth. In a desperate attempt to curb the raising fatality rates, experts claim it is time to experiment, particularly on college campuses and universities.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average age of those who died in 2019 of drug overdose was only 22-years-old. Overdose numbers across all ages have only increased as the highly potent Fentanyl is being used to cut street drugs and is flooding into the United States, primarily from Mexico.

The University of Texas at Austin’s director of the PhARM Program Claire Zagorski notes the dangers of current synthetic opioid use such as fentanyl. Students using “are just unfortunately doing so in a very dangerous time in the drug market” said Zagorski.

Just last October the school and community mourned the death of  Texas Longhorns linebacker Jake Ehlinger who died of an accidental drug overdose.

The deaths of students increasing at an alarming rate has given Zagorski and others the idea to experiment with making naloxone available for free, beginning at the University of Texas. Although Zagorski said “we are not hearing about a lot of confirmed reports among students at UT” the “reality is we are most certainly seeing more than we are hearing about.”

Zagorski says the little data they have on overdoses on campus might not be showing the full picture but having access to life saving resources like Naloxone can help. Naloxone was approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) to reverse opioid addiction. When someone is overdosing, if emergency Naloxone is administered in a timely manner, it binds to opioid receptors and can reverse and block the effects of drugs such as heroine, morphine and oxycodone.

“Naloxone is a fantastic medicine,” Zagorski said. “It is the antidote to opioid overdose.” Initially, Naloxone was put into residence halls, then expanded into the library. Plans to increase Naloxone’s availability around campus is believed to be, quite literally, the only antidote.

Kami Johnston, student director of Operation Naloxone, said “What Operation Naloxone does in the school of pharmacy is we hold campus-wide trainings. So we train people how to recognize an opioid overdose, how to respond to it, how to use Naloxone.”