by Allison Vickery
Hudson, like much of New England, is in the depths of a developing epidemic of deaths, all caused by opioid overdoses. As a result, the Hudson Public School system has decided to begin stocking Narcan as a precautionary measure.
Naloxone, also known as Narcan, blocks or reverses the effects of an opioid in a person. This includes extreme drowsiness, slow breathing, or loss of consciousness. Narcan is used to treat a narcotic overdose in emergencies.
First the idea had to be approved by Dr. Jodi Fortuna, the Superintendent of Hudson Public Schools, and the School Committee. Then, the school physician, Ricardo Lewitus, wrote an order to Hudson’s school nurses to start stocking Narcan. All Hudson Public Schools will now stock it, and nurses will use Narcan to respond, not just to students, but to staff or visitors.
“We decided that the Board of Health is going to buy Narcan for Hudson Schools. The school came to us to see if we would support it,” Dr. Sam Wong, Director of Public and Community Health Services, said.
Some people oppose public access to Narcan. In their opinion, it would encourage the abuse of heroin and many other opioids, even though few studies support this theory. The medical community widely supports Narcan being easily available, since it has been known to save many lives.
“I haven’t used it personally. But I’ve seen it on other people. The person is clinically dead, no pulse, not breathing, and then they install Narcan and start breathing again. It’s pretty amazing,” said Officer Roger M. Downing of the Hudson Police Department. “It’s pretty simple. It comes in a syringe. It gets administered through the nose. Then gets sprayed into both sides.”
Narcan is a nose spray and a shot; it is an antagonist to opioid drugs, such as heroin, morphine, hydrocone, codeine, oxycodone, methadone, fentanyl, hydromorphone, and buprenorphine.
“The number of deaths due to overdoses in Massachusetts last year had more than doubled from 2010,” explained Lee Waingortin, Director of Nursing in Hudson Public Schools. “It had become an epidemic, and the Department of Public Health had declared an emergency because of the opioid crisis.”
In comparison to the rest of the United States, New England has the highest rate of opioid addiction, for a variety of reasons. In an article from USA Today, New England police agencies reported “high availability” of heroin in their communities, 10% more in 2013 than 2008. That’s why schools across New England, including the Hudson School District, are stocking Narcan.
“I can speculate that we have a more concentrated population in this area. In cities, obviously you’ll see more drug traffic. Articles show and trace the drugs back to where they’re manufactured or where the plants are grown and used to make the narcotics. And it’s amazing when you see where it gets funneled, and a lot of them do get funneled to the Northeast, the East Coast or West Coast. When you’re talking Boston, New York, these major cities, or Worcester, even, where they easily distribute them from there,” says Hudson High School Principal Brian Reagan.
In 2010, there were 13,652 unintentional deaths from opioid pain relievers (82.8 percent of the 16,490 unintentional deaths from all prescription drugs), and there was a fivefold increase in treatment admissions for prescription pain relievers between 2001 and 2011 in both adults and teenagers (from 35,648 to 180,708), according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, the number of opioids prescribed to adolescents and young adults (ages 15 to 29) nearly doubled between 1994 and 2007. Every day, 2,500 American teenagers abuse a prescription pain reliever for the first time.
“It’s an issue, definitely an issue. But I think a small percentage of the students here are involved with it. But again one is too many. So it’s critical that I deal with it and the administration deals with it,” Downing says.
The rise in heroin is supposedly connected to the abuse of prescription drugs. Most of the people who have abused painkillers switched to heroin because it’s cheaper and easier to get. That also makes Narcan more necessary in Massachusetts schools.
Because of how well Narcan works, the White House Drug Policy office now urges first responders, such as police and firefighters, to carry it. The Hudson Police Department doesn’t carry and stock Narcan because it needs to be kept at a certain temperature.
Hudson in the past has had its struggles with opioid usage as any other school would. The district is taking precautionary steps.
“Any school district, no matter how big or small, rich or poor, has students who use drugs. We’re just like any other community. We’re not immune to that,” Waingortin says.
