Jessica Velasco
Crimson Chronicle Editor
With seven LAUSD students having overdosed on fentanyl during September, there is worry as Halloween approaches. In response, drug awareness assemblies will be held this Friday.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. Just two milligrams of fentanyl is considered lethal. It is frequently mixed into pills, which is how Melanie Ramos of Bernstein High School overdosed. Believing it to be the prescription painkiller percocet, she took the drug.
In response to the overdoses, LAUSD announced that Narcan will be available to all schools. In the case of an emergency, it is administered as a nasal spray where it will temporarily reverse the effects of an overdose.
For the assembly, grade levels will go during different periods.
- 2nd period: 9th graders
- 4th period: 10th graders
- 6th period: 11th graders
- 8th period: 12th graders