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Making it Easier for Kids to Get Help for Addiction, and Prevent overdoses

FILE - A protester gathers containers that look like OxyContin bottles at an anti-opioid demonstration in front of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services headquarters in Washington on April 5, 2019. A California judge has ruled for top drug manufacturers as local governments seek billions of dollars to cover their costs from the nation’s opioid epidemic. Orange County Superior Court Judge Peter Wilson issued a tentative ruling Monday, Nov. 1, 2021, that said the governments hadn’t proven the pharmaceutical companies used deceptive marketing to increase unnecessary opioid prescriptions and create a public nuisance. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Patrick Semansky/AP

Making it Easier for Kids to Get Help for Addiction, and Prevent overdoses

FILE - A protester gathers containers that look like OxyContin bottles at an anti-opioid demonstration in front of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services headquarters in Washington on April 5, 2019. A California judge has ruled for top drug manufacturers as local governments seek billions of dollars to cover their costs from the nation’s opioid epidemic. Orange County Superior Court Judge Peter Wilson issued a tentative ruling Monday, Nov. 1, 2021, that said the governments hadn’t proven the pharmaceutical companies used deceptive marketing to increase unnecessary opioid prescriptions and create a public nuisance. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Patrick Semansky/AP

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Making it Easier for Kids to Get Help for Addiction, and Prevent overdoses

The U.S. is in the midst of a drug crisis, with opioid overdose deaths climbing to epidemic proportions. And overdose deaths among young people, between the ages of 10 and 19, have been on the rise with sharp increases in recent years. Across the country, cities and states are looking for strategies to help kids survive the opioid crisis. At a school in Virginia, students are learning how to obtain and use the lifesaving overdose reversal nasal spray Narcan that was recently made available for sale over the counter. And in California, where fentanyl is the cause of 1 in 5 deaths among youths, a pending bill could allow younger teens to seek drug treatment without parental consent.

FILE - A protester gathers containers that look like OxyContin bottles at an anti-opioid demonstration in front of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services headquarters in Washington on April 5, 2019. A California judge has ruled for top drug manufacturers as local governments seek billions of dollars to cover their costs from the nation’s opioid epidemic. Orange County Superior Court Judge Peter Wilson issued a tentative ruling Monday, Nov. 1, 2021, that said the governments hadn’t proven the pharmaceutical companies used deceptive marketing to increase unnecessary opioid prescriptions and create a public nuisance. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Patrick Semansky/AP
 

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The U.S. is in the midst of a drug crisis, with opioid overdose deaths climbing to epidemic proportions.

And overdose deaths among young people, between the ages of 10 and 19, have been on the rise with sharp increases in recent years.

Across the country, cities and states are looking for strategies to help kids survive the opioid crisis.

At a school in Virginia, students are learning how to obtain and use the lifesaving overdose reversal nasal spray Narcan that was recently made available for sale over the counter.

And in California, where fentanyl is the cause of 1 in 5 deaths among youths, a pending bill could allow younger teens to seek drug treatment without parental consent.

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