A page on the Vancouver Public Schools website is informative and harrowing.
“Fentanyl is up to 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine,” it reads. “Fentanyl is odorless, tasteless and colorless. Teens never know what they’re getting. One pill can kill them. One pill.”
Similar warnings from other Clark County school districts also are available. But such information is unlikely to get from a district website to where it is most needed — into the heads of students. Instead, lawmakers should pass legislation requiring all public middle schools and high schools to educate students on the dangers of opioids, particularly fentanyl.
House Bill 1956 and its companion, Senate Bill 5923, would do just that (Southwest Washington Reps. Greg Cheney and Sharon Wylie are co-sponsors, along with Sen. Annette Cleveland).
The legislation calls for the state superintendent’s office and various social service agencies to review educational materials regarding substance use and to collaborate to make those materials more relevant. While many school districts have incorporated information about fentanyl into the curriculum, the legislation would make that information uniform throughout the state.
The bills call for students from seventh through 12th grade to receive instruction about the dangers of fentanyl and other substances. As Rep. Mari Leavitt, D-University Place and sponsor of the legislation in the House, told a committee last week: “Youths need to understand the dangers. We owe it to our youths to act now.”
Indeed. In recent years, overdoses have become the leading cause of death for Americans younger than 50 years old. That surge has been driven by an opioid crisis and has been amplified by the rise of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid.
As Dr. Alan Melnick, Clark County health officer and Public Health director, explained in 2021: “Anyone who uses powdered drugs or takes pills that were not given to them by a pharmacy should assume they contain fentanyl. Drugs purchased online, from friends, or from regular dealers could be deadly. There’s no way to know how much fentanyl is in a drug or if it’s evenly distributed throughout the batch.”
That trend is noticeable among young people. Nationally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, overdose deaths among 10- to 19-year-olds increased 109 percent from 2019 to 2021, and a vast majority of those were attributed to manufactured fentanyl.
Stemming the crisis requires robust enforcement to slow the flow of drugs. Federal officials say a majority of precursor chemicals come from China, are synthesized into fentanyl in Mexico, and then are smuggled across the southern border. Security and drug enforcement at the border is essential.
But the issue also calls for reducing demand and improving education about the dangers of opioids.
During a committee hearing about House Bill 1956 last week, one parent who lost a son to fentanyl poisoning in 2002 said she warned her children about the dangers of drugs. “What I didn’t know to tell him is that fentanyl was out there and that it can kill,” she added. “Since I didn’t know myself, I didn’t know to tell him. My hope is that this bill will provide families and youths with the education they need to avoid feeling like this.”
Schools, which legislative backing, can play a role in preventing such tragedies.
