Pursuant to Senate bill 367, Citrus College now has in its possession the overdose-reversal drug called naloxone.
The Senate bill, which was passed last August, charged Cal State Universities and California community colleges to set up naloxone distribution to their population.
By Jan. 1 this year, the campus health centers of community colleges were required to apply to use the statewide standing order issued by the State Public Health Officer and to apply to participate in the Naloxone Distribution Project administered by the State Department of Health Care Services.
They were also required to be ready to train people such as students and staff for using naloxone, and to distribute it to them after they have been trained.
Naloxone is a federally approved opioid overdose reversal medication.
In an interview with the Student Health Center physician, Ann Walker, naloxone is an opioid antagonist. It reverses the effect of various opioids like fentanyl, codeine and morphine.
Walker said that when naloxone is administered, “it is rapidly effective at knocking opioids off the receptors that suppress the respiratory activities of an overdose victim.”
Naloxone is the generic name for the popular overdose-reversal drug brand named Narcan.
It comes in different forms. It can be delivered through a nasal spray, injection and through the veins.
The naloxone that Citrus College has on campus comes in the form of a nasal spray. This makes it easy to deliver, said walker.
Before the introduction of naloxone, health officials, campus safety officers and other public safety people were trained in CPR, which is a large part of what is needed to keep alive someone who has an overdose.
Walker said that if no naloxone is around, providing enough breath through CPR to an overdose victim is enough to wake them up.
Walker also said a person won’t be hurt in any way if they injected or ingested naloxone even if the reason for them not breathing is not due to an overdose.
She said people need to be taught how to identify an overdose and how to respond immediately by calling 911 so that paramedics will get to the scene sooner rather than later. She said people also need to be taught how to administer naloxone and CPR.
Symptoms that suggest an opioid overdose– and the things to focus on– are the unresponsiveness of a person while laying in an awkward position, the inability of a person to be roused by voice or external rub, inadequate breathing and pinpointing pupils.
She said blue lips, ashen skin, and cold and clammy skin are symptoms that suggest one has waited for way too long.
After a suspected overdose victim has been identified, one should call 911, spray them with the naloxone, roll them up into a recovery position so that if they vomit it doesn’t go down their throat and then wait. Walker calls this the spray-and-pray approach to opioid overdose.
Walker also said that police are considered first responders and thus know how to stabilize things pending the time paramedics arrive.
She said a naloxone spray lasts for up to 60 to 90 minutes, but a person with a high overdose might need more than one dose.
She said that all campus safety officers are trained in how to use naloxone and will have it available with them, and when someone is not looking good, that is who usually gets called first.
A campus safety officer confirmed that Narcan is available in their first aid kit, ready for them to use in case of an emergency.
The school nurse, Shauna Bigby also confirmed in an email that the school has ordered 58 doses of Narcan.
She said that the last opioid training was conducted on Feb. 2 and that the dates for future training this semester is being confirmed.
What Walker said she wants is to see naloxone available in every bathroom because those are the places where one is going to run into people who need it.
“The librarians need to have it,” she added.
She also said she wants to see it in visible places in each building, so everybody knows how to find it, and would also love for a broad swath of the campus– staff and students –to be trained in how to use it.
“You need to make the tools available to the people who might most likely find them,” she said.
People can make mistakes and can overdose, such as those who are on an opioid prescription for painkillers.
“Anybody who gets prescribed narcotics medication should also have a dose of naloxone and be taught how to use it, and they need to tell a family member how to use it,” she said.
“ …People need to know this is very simple,” she said because “…it can make a tremendous difference. The speed at which the brain dies due to lack of oxygen is distressingly quick. One will hate to lose somebody just because they didn’t get something one could have if they have had the appropriate training.”
Walker urges people to consider taking a CPR class. She said there are two types of CPR — Mouth-to-mouth CPR and hands-only CPR. The hands-only CPR comes in handy for those who are uncomfortable with mouth-to-mouth contact.
She said taking these classes helps one to evaluate if a person is breathing and when to apply the necessary actions.
Walker said she hopes that the naloxone training that is done at Citrus will give enough of a sense of rescue breathing that people will be willing to try it.
She also said that training could be as simple as watching an 11-minute video from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, in-person training is ideal because it engages the trainees.
As of recent, Bigby said “the student health center has not observed or treated any student overdoses.”
