'Always more to do'; New initiative aims to distribute naloxone to Texas college campuses

Austin – Naluxon Texas launched a new initiative to prevent the overdose in colleges and universities throughout Texas this fall.

The initiative targets public and private universities, community colleges, and commercial schools in response to the Ospening materials crisis that affects young people in the state.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which was released in February, showed that there was a decrease of approximately 24 % in the death of an overdose of the drug in the United States for a period of 12 months ending in September 2024, compared to the previous year.

However, the overdose is still the main cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 44.

Naloxone Texas is a BE WELL Institute program on the use of related materials and disorders at the University of Texas at San Antonio Health Science. It has 10 organizations throughout Texas that work as distribution centers, ensuring that Naluxone training and the prevention of the overdose reach those who need it.

Naluxon, also known as Narcan, is a drug that can quickly reflect an overdose of opiates and save lives when giving them quickly.

Naloxone Texas increases awareness about the dangers of excessive excessive doses and the distribution of Naluxon in universities throughout the state, as well as participating in many events in community colleges throughout Texas, including those in Austin, Houston and San Antonio. In events, students and employees can subscribe to free naluxon groups, learn how to use them and ask questions about the excess dose prevention resources and treatment.

Societies for recovery are the Texas Central Distribution Center for Naluxon Texas.

Nick Sadik and Sayge Reynolds, with societies for recovery, said that excessive doses can happen to anyone, and that without the Naleux, they will not be or many of their loved ones alive today.

Reynolds said that she came from a family suffering from drug use, but her conflict with addiction hit her when she was in college.

“I think people are beginning to realize that it is not your stereotype, as you know, the person who takes an overdose. Like people lose their grandchildren, as you know, friends in your child’s school. Anyone may be,” said Reynolds.

“And I think, as you know, university students specifically, I know myself – when my addiction started and a lot of my problems appear and come to the roof. As you know, I left to the house and I had this freedom, where he learned that the other children were doing it, and I started to realize this, as I was doing, it was different from what they were doing.” I think this is a large part of it, especially in that age group everyone”.

Sadiki said the main goal of the Naluxon Texas initiative is to get Naluxon in the hands of university students.

Sadiki said: “The societies for recovery, have so far trained 1,600 people in addition to people all over our region. We would like to get more numbers at university students because, from the age of 18 to 44, the main cause of death in that age group is an overdose, and mostly fentanel.” “There are a lot of unconditional fake pharmaceutical products. So we want to try to arm the audience with Naluxon, and train everyone on how to use it and save many lives. We would like to say that one dose is equal to one life. So the more naluxon, everyone will be safe.”

Naloxone Texas provides free and training, and can provide loose naluxon orders and training programs designed for organizations.

For individuals, anyone can request Naluxon for personal use and/or attend a virtual training session to learn more about the drug. Anyone can walk in societies for freshness and obtain free Nalaxon.

“With Naluxon, it is like a fire extinguisher,” said Reynolds. “We all keep a fire extinguish somewhere, not in the hope of shooting, or planning to set fire, but if that happens, we want to make sure that we can maintain people’s safe and keep people alive.”

Sadiki added that despite the low death rates in the overdose, there is still a need for prevention, response and awareness efforts.

“There is always what he does more,” he said. “Children return to school now and may go to the campus for the first time, as you know, a student’s year or anything else. They can just spend an enjoyable night and end up in a bad situation … any number of reasons that make you get a pharmacist from an unorganized source, and that you are not 100 % sure of your pharmacy … may be very good.”