Students who want to make Narcan more accessible support students in recovery

Suzy Lanter had not yet taken her first class at Sonoma State University and was already starting a club to support students in recovery from drugs, alcohol and other compulsive behaviors.

“This is my first semester at SSU, but over the summer I noticed there was no recovery club,” said Lanter, 34. “So we started Sea wolves for recovery.”

The “we” is Lanter and Martha Piña, fellow Santa Rosa Junior College students.

Lanter and Piña, 50, were both active in the Students for recovery club at SRJC. They understand very well the types of support an active recovery club can provide.

And part of that is knowing that some students, no matter where they are in their sobriety, might have trouble just walking through the door.

Piña has met SSU students who have said no to the young club’s weekly meetings in Salazar Hall, but have said yes to having coffee with her.

Some students have made the transition to sobriety, but worry about how they will be viewed by their peers. Other students want help taking the first step toward a sober life. More students may want to know how they can support loved ones.

Wherever the students are, Lanter and Piña want the club to be what students need – and meet them where they are.

“If someone needs help, I really want to be able to provide it,” says Lanter, who has been sober for 10 years. “I want them to know there is another way to live. We have the lived experience. We can do other things than have to deal with our addiction.”

And part of that mission is getting Narcan into the hands of students.

Narcan is the brand of naloxone, a drug that can reverse an opioid overdose when used quickly and correctly. It usually comes in a nasal spray and notably has no ill effects if used on someone who is not overdosing but is more likely to pass out or sleep.

More than 107,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2022 in the United States, and 3 of 4 deaths involved an opioid. The 220 people who died each day in 2021 was a 16% increase from the previous year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

California law now requires campuses to provide access to naloxone.

The Campus Opioid Safety Act, in effect January 1, 2023, requires on-campus health centers at most public colleges and universities in California to offer students free Narcan.

At Sonoma State, Narcan is available to students in the Student Health Center. Students cannot receive naloxone from school officials without completing 30 minutes of training.

Both Lanter and Piña believe that complying with the letter of the law is not enough. They are calling for SSU to make Narcan more readily available in peer-to-peer programs like Seawolves for Recovery, rather than requiring students to go through official university channels.

“That’s the goal,” Piña said.

Visiting a campus office for Narcan can be difficult for some students, they said. Stigma still exists.

“In the past, I wouldn’t have gone to a student health center,” says Piña, who is six years sober.

When accidental overdoses and cases of fentanyl poisoning soar, Narcan is a lifesaving tool. There should be no shame or judgment in promoting Narcan, there should be support, they said.

The rise of fentanyl-laced drugs has made experimentation among young people increasingly deadly.

Pills sold on social media or passed on by friends are made to resemble legitimate prescription drugs like Percocet, OxyContin, Xanax or Adderall. But they are increasingly sophisticated counterfeits, cheaply made and laced with fentanyl synthetic drug That can be fifty times more powerful than heroin and a hundred times more powerful than morphine, according to the California Department of Health.

“It’s not a luxury to be curious,” Piña said.

Michelle Leopold’s son Trevor died in 2019 during his freshman year at Sonoma State University. Trevor, who had long struggled with a marijuana use disorder, thought he had purchased Oxycodone, a pain medication, Leopold said.

It was fentanyl.

Today, Michelle — who regularly speaks to high school and college students about the dangers of experimentation in today’s drug landscape — wears a button to let people know she’s carrying Narcan.

Drugs like fentanyl make carrying Narcan an essential safety precaution.

Mo Phillips, director of student engagement at SSU, doesn’t disagree. It is Phillips who brings Leopold on campus to speak at first-year orientation.

Narcan is available on the SSU campus at the Green Music Center, the Recreation Center, at athletic department outposts and other locations, Phillips said.