Members of the School Training Overdose Preparedness and Intelligence Taskforce (STOP-IT) met for the last time Thursday.
The task force was created to address a growing number of fentanyl deaths and overdoses among Arizona’s school-age children.
Over the past eight months, members secured a long-term supply chain for Naloxone, a medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose, and delivered more than 4,000 kits with the drug to schools.
Committee co-chair Mike Kurtenbach said they’re rolling out a toolkit with information on opioids and best practices for storing and administering Naloxone.
“This takes the reader through everything from what is fentanyl, what are these opioids, [and] helps to educate parents on what they look like, the emojis that these drug traffickers use," Kurtenbach said, "so they can hopefully engage their children, that they're aware of what to look for and what questions to ask."
Since 2017, Arizona has recorded 224 deaths and more than 1,300 non-fatal overdoses and in people under age 18.
More than 60 representatives from schools, health care, behavioral health, law enforcement and multiple state agencies were a part of STOP-IT.
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