Some California colleges and universities will be required to stock fentanyl tests on school campuses after a bill was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom this week.
University of California campuses are requested to comply under the law, but not required to do so.
The fentanyl tests are small strips of paper that can detect traces of the synthetic opioid in different drugs; a state Assembly analysis estimates the law will cost about $1.4 million annually.
“One out of every five California youths aged 15 to 24 who died in 2021 were killed by a fentanyl overdose—either through the actual fentanyl use or by consuming another drug laced with fentanyl. The strips will prevent inadvertent taking of this lethal poison and assist in keeping students safe,” he said in an Oct. 9 statement.
Among the 7,175 opioid-related deaths in California in 2021, 11.6 percent were between the ages of 15 and 24.
In Los Angeles Unified School District alone, at least seven students overdosed in the month of September in 2022 from the synthetic opioid fentanyl—including a 15-year-old girl who died—according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The new California law is the latest in a series of efforts by the state to reduce fentanyl overdose deaths.
