{"id":137282,"date":"2025-08-11T15:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T15:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/137282\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T15:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T15:39:10","slug":"narcan-is-a-public-health-miracle-every-college-student-should-have-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/137282\/","title":{"rendered":"Narcan is a public health miracle. Every college student should have it"},"content":{"rendered":"

By the time we snap her boxes shut,\u00a0we\u2019ll\u00a0have it all in there: twin XL sheets, shower caddy, extra chargers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And\u00a0Narcan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019d\u00a0be lying if I said that last one\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0stop\u00a0me\u00a0cold.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My daughter is leaving for college\u00a0in a\u00a0couple of\u00a0weeks.\u00a0She\u2019s\u00a0a careful, cautious kid. A conservatory-bound graduate who\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0even\u00a0touch caffeine before a performance.<\/p>\n

But this\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0about her.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0about\u00a0the\u00a0roommate.\u00a0The\u00a0classmate. A stranger at a party.\u00a0Isn\u2019t it\u00a0always\u00a0someone\u00a0else\u2019s\u00a0kid?\u00a0<\/p>\n

As I put\u00a0Narcan\u00a0in the cart \u2014 one hand over\u00a0my heart and the other over the womb that brought her into this world \u2014 the mother\u00a0in\u00a0me was\u00a0between weeping and vomiting. The realist in me knew better. Because in 2025, packing an overdose-reversal spray for college is, or should be, a new kind of parental instinct.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I packed it because my daughter might be the one holding it when it counts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And the only reason she can?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The work of public\u00a0health.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"\"\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tSedative \u2018dex\u2019 is replacing \u2018tranq\u2019 in illegal drug supply and causing excruciating withdrawal<\/a><\/p>\n

Because of the unglamorous, underfunded, lifesaving work of the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health, state health departments, and a quiet army of scientists and public servants who never stopped believing that drug misuse\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0a\u00a0moral failing \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a treatable medical\u00a0condition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Narcan\u00a0(naloxone)\u00a0reverses opioid overdoses in seconds and is as simple to use as nasal spray for allergies. I bought it for $45 on Amazon. That I could \u2014\u00a0that I felt I\u00a0had\u00a0to \u2014 says everything about the moment\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0living in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite a significant drop in deaths among some populations in recent years,\u00a0nearly\u00a055,000\u00a0people died from\u00a0opioid\u00a0overdoses<\/a> in the U.S. in 2024.\u00a0And while the national decline is encouraging news, overdoses are still the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-44.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But\u00a0Narcan\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0just magically show up on pharmacy shelves. It exists because\u00a0people\u00a0made it happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Naloxone was created in the early 1970s, reserved for emergency medicine. By 1983, the World Health Organization listed it as an \u201cessential medicine.\u201d In the following decades, as opioids evolved, so did the need for innovation. That led researchers at the National Institutes of Health to get this powerful prescription into a more user-friendly form\u00a0\u2014 nasal\u00a0spray \u2014 which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in\u00a02015, but\u00a0still limited to medical professionals.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the WHO was behind the scenes\u00a0ensuring\u00a0its eventual over-the-counter form would get fast-tracked. At the same time, law enforcement agencies and health departments were actively rolling out training.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2023, the FDA greenlit an over-the-counter spray<\/a> that enabled non-clinicians to\u00a0provide\u00a0second chances without a second thought.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s\u00a0how\u00a0Narcan\u00a0ended up in our medicine cabinet \u2014 and my\u00a018-year-old\u00a0daughter\u2019s first-aid kit.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s\u00a0also the\u00a0best\u00a0of public health.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

And now? Congress is\u00a0turning its back as the Trump administration defunds\u00a0the WHO\u00a0and\u00a0slashes 40%\u00a0of\u00a0NIH\u2019s\u00a0budget, not to mention squeezing every drop of funding from health services and research\u00a0\u2014 the\u00a0very\u00a0forces behind\u00a0this lifesaving work.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"\"\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tPublic health leaders, besieged and regretful, talk of re-establishing trust<\/a><\/p>\n

Look,\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0not a doctor, though\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0worked\u00a0in health care for years.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0a mom. A\u00a0citizen of a country where overdose kills far too many \u2014 and where a growing number of politicians treat public health like a partisan punching bag instead of what it\u00a0actually is:\u00a0national defense in a lab coat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u00a0also\u00a0live\u00a0in rural New Hampshire, where folks\u00a0like me\u00a0carry\u00a0Narcan\u00a0in their\u00a0Subaru\u00a0glove compartments because\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0seen too much to pretend otherwise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When we close the last of her boxes and hug our daughter goodbye, my husband and I will feel it all \u2014 pride,\u00a0heartbreak\u00a0and\u00a0hope.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll\u00a0also feel gratitude.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the scientists and health professionals\u00a0who\u2019ve\u00a0been with us from the start to keep our kid safe \u2014 \u00a0her first vaccines, her first period, her first broken bone,\u00a0her first\u00a0experiments with\u00a0love.\u00a0Now, as she heads off on\u00a0her\u00a0first great adventure, public health will be there quietly protecting her when\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0no longer down the hallway.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

I pray she never needs\u00a0that\u00a0Narcan. But some kid down\u00a0her\u00a0hallway might.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is no question that we have public health to thank for keeping our children alive. I hope\u00a0in this moment we can thank\u00a0elected\u00a0officials\u00a0for\u00a0keeping public health alive.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Elizabeth M\u00e9traux\u00a0works in communications for the United Nations Foundation and was formerly at the National Institutes of Health and the Vermont Department of Health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By the time we snap her boxes shut,\u00a0we\u2019ll\u00a0have it all in there: twin XL sheets, shower caddy, extra…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":137283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1556,5377,210,1060,881,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-137282","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-addiction","9":"tag-advocacy","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-medication","12":"tag-public-health","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115010887137786994","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}