Ocean County to arm high schools with opiate antidote
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(Kimberly Paynter/for WHYY)
High schools throughout Ocean County will soon be armed with a lifesaving drug.
Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato today announced that high school nurses, athletic trainers, and student assistance coordinators will be receiving and learning how to administer Narcan, a powerful opiate antidote that typically generates immediate results.
Narcan, administered through a syringe into a nostril, can quickly reverse an overdose. First responders throughout Ocean County are equipped with the antidote.
[RELATED: The overdose ‘antidote’: how Narcan works]
“This training will continue our efforts to make Narcan available and accessible in the tragic event of an overdose in our school community,” Coronato said in a prepared statement.
In addition to the deployment of Narcan throughout the county, Coronato’s office has been battling the ongoing opiate crisis with educational programs, K-9 searches in middle and high schools, rehabilitation programs for drug users, and a variety of enforcement and investigatory techniques.
The county has logged 180 drug overdose deaths this year.
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