Rhode Island colleges will be required to stock the opioid overdose reversal medication naloxone, known by the brand name Narcan, in all dormitories and college-run housing starting Sept. 1.
The measure, which Gov. Dan McKee signed into law on June 26, also mandates that all resident assistants in campus housing be trained in how to recognize the signs of an overdose and administer the medication, which is generally in the form of a nasal spray.
Training is critical. A nationwide survey of more than 7,000 college students found that fewer than 15% knew how to administer naloxone to reverse an opioid overdose.
“The more people who know how to properly use Narcan, and the more Narcan is available, the more deaths we can avert,’’ said state Sen. Melissa Murray, chair of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, who sponsored the Senate bill. Making Narcan accessible on college campuses is critical, she said, “because folks are using younger and younger.”
There is no tracking of overdose deaths among college students. But drug overdose deaths among adolescents ages 14 to 18 more than doubled between 2019 and 2020, and rose higher again in 2022, according to a 2024 article in The New England Journal of Medicine. The trend largely is driven by opioids laced with fentanyl, which are present in three-quarters of all adolescent overdose deaths. Fentanyl is found in street drugs and fake pills that are made to look like medications to treat anxiety or ADHD.
Abuse of prescription ADHD medications, which act as stimulants, has grown on college campuses by students who think that they will improve their ability to study. But since the pandemic, a nationwide shortage of these prescription stimulants has made them harder to access. The shortage of prescription stimulants increases the risk of overdose if people turn to counterfeit pills which, the NEJM article said, are often marketed to adolescents on social media platforms.
Rhode Island’s new law is similar to those enacted in Connecticut, Maryland and Washington State.
