Advocates: Bill that would bring overdose-reversal medicine to Minnesota schools should get a fresh look
CHANHASSEN, Minn --- Colleen Ronnei lights up when she talks about her beloved son Luke, whom she describes as funny, charming, handsome and the type of person who could sense when somebody was having a bad day.
Since she lost him to an overdose six years ago, she's made it her life's work to shatter the stigma surrounding substance abuse and find healing by helping others.
"It was freeing for me to say you know what, I'm not ashamed of my son," she said. "He fought his disease, and he did well. And then he didn't do well and that's part of this disease. So I think by doing this, and we can be open and talk about it honestly, whether with our neighbors or our family members or the young people in our lives – we give them a fighting chance."
Her nonprofit Change the Outcome goes to schools across the state to educate students and faculty about the opioid epidemic, which is now largely fueled by fentanyl. Ronnei estimates her work has reached 60,000 people over the last six years.
But there's one life-saving solution that's largely absent from Minnesota schools: naloxone, better known by the brand name Narcan, which can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
That must change, she said.
"We have a moral and ethical obligation to be able to respond to those crises should they arise," Ronnei explained. "We shouldn't wait until someone loses their life to do it. We have an opportunity to do something really wonderful."
A provision tucked inside a large education bill at the State Capitol would've allowed schools to make deals with drugmakers to get naloxone for free or at a discount - or have a third party pay for it. That ultimately didn't pass before the Minnesota lawmakers adjourned this spring.
An earlier version of the legislation first introduced by Rep. Kelly Morrison, DFL-Deephaven, would've required schools to have supplies of the medicine, but language mandating it was removed further in the legislative process.
Ronnei has been pushing for the bill's passage for years. She believes it's common sense public policy that is long overdue, but now has new urgency because of the proliferation of powerful pills containing fentanyl. Other parents agree.
"I had a representative make the comment, 'How can you ask school districts to do one more thing? They have their hands full. How can you ask them to take this on?'" she said. "And my response was, 'How can you ask a teacher to watch a student die right in front of them because they don't have a simple tool?'"
The second largest school district in the country - Los Angeles - recently made naloxone available to all schools following a string of student overdoses there, one claiming the life of a 15 year old. One analysis of laws across the country said 27 states have some sort of statute regarding access to naloxone in schools. Only a handful require it.
Rep. Dave Baker, R-Willmar, who co-sponsored Morrison's original bill, thinks legislation empowering schools to have naloxone on hand will get a fresh look next year and can pass with bipartisan support.
He suggested the state could use its share of funds from settlements with opioid manufacturers to fund grants schools could use to cover the costs.
"There's poison out there that looks like candy," Baker said. "We have to make sure we tell people and when it does fall into the wrong hands, this medicine has to be there. We've got to get it out to more places."
Baker lost his son to an opioid overdose 11 years ago, and at that time, he said, he hadn't even heard of naloxone. He wishes it could've helped and wants to see the medicine in more public places, including bars and night clubs.
"Had my son had that sooner and had people not been afraid of being hauled into jail because they were using with my son, he might've been saved," he said.