With students gearing up for the final stretch of the school year, Chief Campus Health Officer Dr. Sarah Van Orman addressed the uses and benefits of having Narcan — a lifesaving drug used that stops opioid overdoses — as well as the stigmas and taboos surrounding drug use. 

Opioids are a class of drugs used to prevent pain. Prescription opioids, fentanyl and heroin are all types of opioids and administering naloxone — either through the nasal spray or liquid form — can prevent death caused by overdosing.

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In Fall 2023, Student Health began distributing Narcan for free at the Trojan Farmers Market Wednesday at McCarthy Quad. The well-being and health outreach ambassadors for Student Health — who table the department’s Trojan Farmers Market booth — estimate they give out 12 to 15 boxes of free Narcan every Wednesday. 

Van Orman said opioid usage is “common” and that it’s important to think about how people communicate and talk about sensitive topics such as overdoses, drugs and drug usage. 

“Unfortunately, we’re just in this situation where there’s so [many] opioids entering the system and so many people losing their lives from it that we may not know what our loved ones, friends, family, peers are being exposed to,” Van Orman said. “It is really an opportunity for us to be that bystander.”

The CDC classifies opioid overdoses as an “epidemic” and states more than 1 million people have died since 1999 from a drug overdose — with 75% of those overdoses involving an opioid. 

Hallie Yong, a well-being and health outreach ambassador for Student Health and a senior majoring in global health, said the cost of Narcan — which is around $50 a box — is a “barrier to access.” 

“Narcan is such an important life-saving resource that college students need,” Yong said. “You never know when someone that you know or you yourself could be in danger of [an] opioid overdose.” 

Yong said students used to be required to complete a 10-minute online training module which explained how to administer Narcan properly before they could receive free Narcan from the Student Health booth. Now, students are able to freely walk up to the tent and receive Narcan.  

Students who wish to learn how to administer Narcan can scan the box’s QR code to watch a training video or take the online module by NaloxoneSC, an online USC naloxone distribution program which was founded in partnership with the American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists. 

“You’re not always going to be in a safe or controlled environment and you might not always know what’s going in your drink and things like that,” Yong said. “Having Narcan, like it’s really small, so just having it in your bag when you go out can not only make you feel safer about going out … and prevent bad things from happening.” 

Yong said negative reactions to being offered free Narcan are “pretty uncommon” and that most people at USC are open-minded about these issues.

Van Orman said the various stigmas and taboos that exist surrounding sexual and reproductive health, drug use, alcohol use, dieting, nutrition and mental health all constitute a major “struggle” for patients and medical professionals alike. 

“Those [topics] all get woven in with societal judgements about how … we should or shouldn’t be,” Van Orman said. “We know that it affects health care professionals also in terms of how we even talk to patients and we have bias … we always have to be combating it.”

She said prejudices, biases and stigma makes it more difficult for some to reach out and get the care and assistance they need. She has Narcan in her car at all times in case she encounters someone who’s undergoing an overdose.

“It is incredibly important I think for health care professionals, for patients, for peers, for friends to recognize that particularly for these things that really are health conditions, they get all mixed in with our views of what’s right and wrong,” Van Orman said. “The risk is that it actually impacts people’s health.”