LA County Supervisors approve motion to stock anti-overdose drug at Juvenile Halls

Narcan, a medication used to reverse the effects of opioid drug overdoses, will be made available to staff at Los Angeles County’s juvenile halls and juvenile rehabilitation facilities under a motion approved unanimously by the Board of Supervisors.

Narcan is the brand name for the generic medication naloxone, which is most commonly administered through a nasal spray, or through an injection. Once administered, the medication can quickly restore normal, regular breathing to someone overdosing on opioids, like fentanyl.

While there have been no deaths because of opioid overdoses at juvenile detention facilities, Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said incidents of drugs and other contraband being brought into juvenile halls point to the need to have the medication available. She cited one incident in which a drone dropped drugs into a juvenile facility.

“Today’s motion is proactive to save lives,” Horvath said. “While we hope the need to deploy Narcan will never arise, we can’t afford to be unprepared.”

Narcan is already available to county staff at libraries and adult jail facilities, and it is also available on Los Angeles Unified School District campuses.

Introduced by Supervisors Horvath and Janice Hahn, the motion calls on the county’s Chief Probation Officer and the directors of Public Health and Health Services to come up with a plan on how to train county staff members to administer the medication.

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