Opiod overdose reversal treatments will be available in Virginia elementary and high schools

Virginia school students will learn new skills.Photo byPharmacy ImagesonUnsplash

Virginia school students will learn a new technique

The opioid crisis is leading to changes in Virginia school systems that no one decades ago could have seen coming. In November 2023, Virginia Mercury reported that there had been ten opioid overdoses in six schools in Loudon County.

Governor Glenn Youngkin has been on top of the situation and required schools to notify parents when their children overdosed on school property. In addition, Axios reports that a series of bills will require all state agencies in Virginia, plus public elementary and high schools, to have naloxone, or other opioid overdose reversal treatments, on hand.

High school students in the Commonwealth will be encouraged to receive training in administering naloxone before graduation. We have gone from teaching students to learn a trade or attend college to giving them the techniques to prevent a drug overdose death.