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Louisiana advocate urges students to carry Narcan at school
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LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) -- Lilly Harvey, founder of Millie Mattered, who lost her daughter to a fentanyl overdose insists the fight is not over.
Harvey has shared the stage in Baton Rouge with parents and lawmakers to help pass a bill cracking down on fentanyl distributors.
Now, Harvey is changing her focus to grade-level students and Narcan.
She is advocating for allowing grade level students to carry Narcan onto school property.
"I have witnessed children taking gummies and overdosing," said Harvey. "We have witnessed children taking pills that look like candy and overdosing. As a Mille Mattered advocate, I have talked to pharmacists, I have talked to mothers of children who drive vehicles to school, and they say that they cannot even have medicine in their car."
Louisiana school districts are designated as zero-tolerance, drug-free zones and that includes over-the-counter drugs. Many schools have resource officers or nurses equipped with the opioid overdose reversal drug.
"We want teachers to have Narcan, and a lot of teachers do now around the state, but what about the kids at sports that are driving to the football field or find somebody out in the parking lot? I think it's very important that students who can drive to school can carry Narcan and keep it in their vehicle," Harvey said.
According to the Louisiana Department of Health, in 2023, there were 1,130 opioid-involved deaths. The report calculates Lafayette had 68 such deaths.
"That's something we're going to be shooting for is to talk to our legislators to lift that one drug, Narcan, from the zero-free drug zones because you can't get high off of it, and you can't overdose on it," she added.