Last week, U.S. Rep. Dan Webster, R-Fla., threw his support behind U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn’s, D-Col., “Protecting Kids from Fentanyl Act.”
The bill “would allow states to use the $146 million in grant funding through the Department of Health and Human Services to educate children and provide training and naloxone to teachers and school employees to save lives.”
“Fentanyl is a horrendous drug that has crept into our homes and schools. It’s produced and trafficked by China and other countries that are interested in destroying the lives of Americans,”said Lamborn. “Educating students and providing lifesaving Narcan to schools will help us combat the Fentanyl crisis in our own communities.”
More than a dozen House members lined up to co-sponsor the bill, including Webster and U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif.
“The fentanyl crisis continues to ravage our country and communities, accounting for a majority of drug overdose deaths in adolescents,” said Webster. “This bipartisan legislation would provide schools the tools needed to help combat this dangerous substance and protect our children. Life is a precious gift, and I am committed providing the lifesaving resources necessary to address this epidemic.”
“In 2021, fentanyl accounted for one in five deaths of young people in California, a heartbreaking trend that will accelerate if we fail to be proactive,” said Panetta. “The bipartisan Protecting Kids from Fentanyl Act would equip schools with the resources and training needed to intervene in the event of an overdose and ensure our young people are educated on the dangers of this deadly drug. The federal government needs to do its part, alongside state and local governments, to combat this scourge, protect public health, and save lives.”
The bill would “allow states to utilize existing grant funds within the Preventative Health and Health Services Block Grant to: purchase naloxone or other opioid antagonists for use in educational institutions; provide training to school nurses, teachers, school administrators, and school resource officers on how to administer naloxone” and “provide fentanyl awareness classes or materials to students so that they may better understand the dangers of fentanyl and its presence in counterfeit pills and tainted drugs.”
Last year, more than 70,000 Americans died of fentanyl overdoses and studies have shown increasing numbers of young people using it.
The bill was sent to the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee. So far, there is no companion measure in the U.S. Senate.
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