AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) The governor of Maine is developing a program that would stock all the state’s high schools and middle schools with the overdose antidote drug, naloxone.
The Portland Press Herald reports the administration also wants to improve and expand prevention education to younger grades.
Some lawmakers and educators say the program will normalize drug use and give school staff more responsibilities.
Maine’s director of opioid response, Gordon Smith, says the education community should embrace the ability to reverse an overdose in school.
Smith says Gov. Janet Mills would back legislation to make staff training mandatory if needed, but she hopes that schools will voluntarily take on the program.
According to the Maine Attorney General’s Office, there were 418 overdose deaths in the state in 2017, including 354 caused by opioids.
