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SAMPLE BILLS FOR 2022 FALL PROGRAM
Here is what a bill should look like 2022 Fall Program Best Bill BILL # LD 2022-212 Bill Sponsor: Allie Sullivan School: Maine School of Science and Mathematics Endorsed By: Millie Rhodes Referred to the Committee on Education
Narcan (Naloxone) should be required in all Maine educational facilities to possibly save the life of a faculty member, parent, or student.
Be it enacted by the State YMCA of Maine’s 2023 Youth and Government Program as follows:
STATEMENT OF FACT: Naloxone is a life-saving medication that can reverse an overdose from opioids—including fentanyl, heroin, and prescription opioid medications—when given in time. To be effective, Narcan must be given within a certain window of time and stocking schools with Narcan already in hand means that almost certainly, if notified in time, the medication could be given in a timely manner. This could lead to saving many lives because, unfortunately, in all educational facilities—especially high schools—drug use is an inevitable event that occurs whether we like it or not. Even with the students who are not taking life-threatening drugs recreationally, an increase of less-harmful drugs being spiked with life-threatening substances—like fentanyl—is becoming more and more common and killing young people. Even in schools with younger children (K-8), there are reports of children picking up what they thought to be candy, and it being a tab of fentanyl; which ended in the loss of a child's life. These lives could be saved if educational facilities in Maine are prepared and educated on the antidote to these violent accidents, and are given the ability to use Naloxone.
JUSTIFICATION: Although a growing number of states are embracing access to naloxone in school facilities, the idea of doing so in Maine is still raising concerns among some educators and lawmakers about normalizing drug use. However, Naloxone is a safe medicine and only reverses overdoses in people with opioids in their systems. Naloxone in hand or not, the people in these schools are going to do these drugs anyway, so the educators must be ready to administer the antidote. Approximately every 8 minutes, on average, a person dies from an opioid overdose. Naloxone can quickly restore normal breathing and save the life of a person who is actively in a threatening state and nearly 27,000 lives have been saved as a result of Narcan being given to friends and family to reverse opioid overdoses. Educational facilities in Maine should be required to do their part in combating the state’s overdose crisis and provide Naloxone for any inevitable accident.
FINANCIAL CONSIDERATION: The average price of one dose of Naloxone Nasal Spray (4 mg/0.1 mL) is around $25-$38. There are 569 K-12 schools in Maine and twenty-nine colleges. For a quantity of two doses of Narcan at each school, it would cost the Maine education budget $35,880.
REFERENCES: https://www.drugs.com/price-guide/narcan-nasal-spray https://admissionsly.com/how-many-schools-are-there/ https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?s=ME
BILL SUMMARY: Educational facilities in Maine should be required to stock, possess, and administer Naloxone (Narcan) for any inevitable accident to do their part in combating the state’s overdose crisis and to possibly revive a student, faculty member, or parent's life in a timely manner.
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