During his One Pill Kills Summit in Austin, Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott announced Thursday his two-part plan to battle the fentanyl crisis plaguing the state.
At the summit Abbott met with law enforcement, healthcare workers and families affected by the drug. Abbott announced both a multimedia awareness plan as well as a Narcan distribution plan, according to NBC DFW.
“Narcan nasal spray is a prescription medicine used for the treatment of a known or suspected opioid overdose emergency with signs of breathing problems and severe sleepiness or not being able to respond,” according to Emergent BioSolutions Inc. Narcan is the brand name for the device which delivers the active ingredient naloxone hydrochloride into the nasal cavity.
Since launching Operation Lone Star to combat drug, weapon and human trafficking at the southern border, Abbott has prioritized battling the fentanyl epidemic in the United States. The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) has seized more than 380 million lethal doses of fentanyl since Operation Lone Star’s launch, according to a press release from the Office of the Texas Governor.
Abbott said at the summit that he launched the “One Pill Kills” campaign out of a sense of great urgency for the five Texans that are “losing their lives every day to this clandestine killer.” (RELATED: Fentanyl Street Price Plummets While Country Faces High Prices Under The Biden Administration)
The first part of Abbott’s plan to curtail the effects of this huge influx of drugs involves earmarking $10 million for multimedia awareness efforts through the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. This initiative serves to educate Texans on the prevention and reversal of fentanyl poisoning.
The second part of the plan details a Naloxone, or Narcan, distribution initiative to all 254 counties in Texas by the Texas Division of Emergency Management. Narcan has reportedly saved countless lives so by increasing the access Texans have to it, the reasoning goes, the more overdose deaths will be prevented.
The announcement of Abbott’s plan comes shortly after a significant development in the case of three students who died from overdoses in Carrollton, Texas. The alleged trafficker who advertised the drug to them was federally charged last month, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Texas.
While the One Pill Kills program’s two new initiatives won’t necessarily change the flow of drugs into or within the United States, they will significantly impact the lives of those already exposed to fentanyl or in the throes of addiction.
Education and overdose prevention will be experienced strongly at the community level in Texas and are expected to save lives.