FILE - The overdose-reversal drug Narcan is displayed during training for employees of the Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC), Dec. 4, 2018, in Philadelphia. The death of a Connecticut seventh grader from an apparent fentanyl overdose has renewed calls for schools to carry the opioid antidote naloxone. The 13-year-old student in Hartford died Saturday after falling ill in school two days earlier. The school did not have naloxone, which is known by the brand name Narcan. But now city officials are vowing to put it in all schools. Fatal overdoses among young people in the U.S. have been increasing amid the opioid epidemic but remain relatively uncommon. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, file)
Katie Knol was WITF's newsroom summer intern for 2023.
She currently a senior at Penn State University majoring in digital/print journalism and political science. She has also worked at WPSU, The Daily Collegian and CommRadio.
FILE - The overdose-reversal drug Narcan is displayed during training for employees of the Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC), Dec. 4, 2018, in Philadelphia. The death of a Connecticut seventh grader from an apparent fentanyl overdose has renewed calls for schools to carry the opioid antidote naloxone. The 13-year-old student in Hartford died Saturday after falling ill in school two days earlier. The school did not have naloxone, which is known by the brand name Narcan. But now city officials are vowing to put it in all schools. Fatal overdoses among young people in the U.S. have been increasing amid the opioid epidemic but remain relatively uncommon. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, file)
In rural York County, EMS workers have to make the long journey through farmland to reach overdose patients — and they’re often visiting the same address multiple times. The patient can overdose again, or someone else in the house can.
EMS workers used to leave doses of Naloxone, an overdose-reversing drug, with these at-risk patients until several years ago, when they were told they weren’t allowed to.
In response to EMS concerns, State Senator Kristin Phillips-Hill (R-York) introduced SB-81, a bill that would allow responders to leave extra doses of Naloxone with the on-site caregiver in the event of another overdose.
She said the increased prevalence of fentanyl-laced drugs has worsened the drug issue throughout the country. Fentanyl-related overdose deaths increased by 279% between 2016 and 2021, according to the CDC.
The FDA approved Narcan as an over-the-counter medication, effective late this summer, but Phillips-Hill said Pennsylvanians need accessible overdose-reversing drugs before then. Naloxone, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, can “avert 21 percent of opioid overdose deaths.”
For Phillips-Hill, the answer is clear — increased access to Naloxone will save lives.
“We know that it will make a positive impact not only for those people who are on the front lines taking care of all of us everyday, but for our family members, our friends, our community members as well,” Phillips-Hill said.
SB-81 passed unanimously in the divided state Senate and will now move to the House. Phillips-Hill said she’s hopeful the “common-sense” legislation will become law.
