The Associated Students Commission on Student Well-Being and Gauchos for Recovery provided overdose prevention resources and training to the campus community at the Arbor on Feb. 28.

Staff members offer free naloxone and fentanyl test strips alongside instructions on their usage. Michael Zhang / Daily Nexus

Staff members from both organizations tabled outside of the Arbor from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., offering free naloxone and fentanyl test strips alongside instructions on their usage. Attendees who underwent a brief training on Narcan administration received bagels, donuts and coffee from Spudnuts Donuts. 

Second-year English and psychological and brain sciences double major and Gauchos for Recovery (GFR) overdose prevention intern Avery Lindsey provided a brief “30-second training” on effectively administering Narcan at the table. They also offered instructions on effective use of fentanyl test strips.

“What you do is you take a little bit of any sort of drug that you have, crush it into a fine powder, because fentanyl tends to stick to itself, and put the [test] strip in there with some water,” Lindsey said. “It basically detects if any fentanyl is in your drug.” 

Second-year global studies and communication double major and vice chair of the Commission on Student Well-Being (COSWB) Le Anh Metzger was a lead coordinator of the event. Even though overdose prevention resources are freely available through GFR during daily pick-up times at Embarcadero Hall, Metzger believes students can make greater use of the harm reduction measures available to them.

“We have free Narcan and fentanyl test strips for every student, but there’s a general lack of awareness that people can get these things or that it’s still good for non-users to have these resources at their disposal,” Metzger said. “You never know for who or when they’re going to be necessary.” 

Lindsey echoed the necessity of harm reduction training and emphasized the confidentiality of the resources and training services of GFR.

“If you come to any of our tabling hours or our office hours in Embarcadero Hall, ask for [fentanyl test strips], we give it to you and don’t ask for any information,” she said.

Metzger underscored the importance of ongoing and upcoming collaborative campus efforts toward harm reduction, including both tabling sessions and larger-scale events. 

“We have an upcoming Overdose Prevention Week, which will take place in the first week of spring quarter, and we’re collaborating with a bunch of other organizations beyond Gauchos for Recovery, like Life of the Party and the Public & Mental Health Commission,” Metzger said. “Just to maximize the amount of awareness and resources before we enter Deltopia, which is the time of year when a lot of potentially dangerous things can happen.”