Making It Easier For Kids To Get Help For Addiction, And Prevent Overdoses

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🗓️ 12 June 2023

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

The U.S. is in the midst of a drug crisis, with opioid overdose deaths climbing to epidemic proportions.

And overdose deaths among young people, between the ages of 10 and 19, have been on the rise with sharp increases in recent years.

Across the country, cities and states are looking for strategies to help kids survive the opioid crisis.

At a school in Virginia, students are learning how to obtain and use the lifesaving overdose reversal nasal spray Narcan that was recently made available for sale over the counter.

And in California, where fentanyl is the cause of 1 in 5 deaths among youths, a pending bill could allow younger teens to seek drug treatment without parental consent.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	My first drug dealer was a doctor.
0:10.8	When Greg Hill suffered an injury at 15 that caused pensionerves in his lower back, he
0:15.6	was prescribed an opioid medication for the pain.
0:18.7	That became a habit by itself.
0:21.2	Once his prescription ran out, he turned to the streets to find drugs.
0:25.3	He just progressed over time.
0:28.4	At the end, I was using alone.
0:29.9	I didn't have any friends.
0:32.5	Nobody trusted me.
0:33.5	Nobody wanted me around.
0:34.7	And it was miserable.
0:36.8	Hill's mother, Laura Mitchell, recognized her son's drug addiction around the time he
0:41.3	was 19.
0:42.3	Greg was watching the War on Drugs series on the History Channel.
0:46.7	They talked about symptoms of overdosing on opiates and the nodding off, like sitting there
0:52.4	having a conversation and their head just drops and they seemed to have a micro nap.
0:57.4	I recognized that.
0:58.9	It was very frequent and I was like, oh my gosh, it started clicking and I thought it's
1:04.8	July's wearing long sleeves.
1:07.1	Where are my spoons going?
1:08.2	Why do I keep finding pen barrels without the pen in them?
1:12.0	Mitchell and her son spoke with NPR's Michelle Martin.
	...

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