California could soon require communities hit hard by the growing fentanyl crisis to become the first in the nation to require gas stations, bars and even libraries to stock up on the overdose-reversing drug Narcan, under a new legislative proposal unveiled Tuesday.
Similar to proposals aimed at schools, the bill is among a raft of new legislation this term introduced by both parties that aims to curb fentanyl overdoses as the crisis worsens.
Assemblymember Matt Haney, a San Francisco Democrat, said the new bill would require bartenders, gas station attendants, and employees at libraries and single-room occupancy hotels to have access to the opioid-reversing drug in specific communities hit hard by the powerful drug fentanyl. The bill would mandate the California Department of Public Health provide those businesses with Narcan and facilitate free shipments of the life-saving drug.
“There is no excuse for not having Narcan everywhere where it’s needed,” Haney said Tuesday. “There are people who work at restaurants and bars who have been tragically put in the position of having people die in their arms.”
The bill would at first only apply in counties heavily impacted by the rise of fentanyl cases and task the California Department of Public Health with determining a threshold, according to Haney.
Business owners and managers who fail to comply with the mandate would be charged with a misdemeanor offense, and could be fined up to $1,000. Not everyone is thrilled about the new proposal.
“My first reaction is that I’m not a fan,” said Robinson Oil and Rotten Robbie Gas Stations CEO Erin Graziosi when informed about the proposal and its penalty provisions. Graziosi said that there have been no overdoses at the three dozen stations she oversees in the Bay Area, and that she fears that arming untrained gas station employees with Narcan adds a lot of pressure to the job.
“It starts really changing the scope of someone’s job, even if they rarely have to do it,” she said.
One of the benefits of Narcan is that it has no negative effects if administered in error to someone who is not overdosing on opioids.
Click here to read the Bay Area News Group special report Fentanyl on Campus.
Haney said the bill was inspired by the Bay Area News Group’s continuing coverage of the fentanyl crisis. In announcing the bill, he cited the news organization’s report which found that a staggering one fifth of deaths of youths, ages 15-24, were directly attributable to fentanyl last year.
In a follow-up report published Sunday, the news organization surveyed more than 40 Bay Area school districts and found that most have not yet acquired Narcan on their campuses, even though several students have overdosed. Many school districts, including Oakland, Castro Valley, and Palo Alto, said they plan to stock up on Narcan in the next two months.
Other proposed legislation may soon require schools to act.
Democratic Sen. Dave Cortese of San Jose announced a bill in November that would require schools across the state to draft plans for responding to a fentanyl medical event. Another bill from Republican Assemblymember Joe Patterson of Rocklin would require every school to have at least two doses of Narcan on campus. Cortese said there is a bipartisan consensus in Sacramento that more needs to be done now to curb fentanyl’s sudden rise.
“People have a sense of urgency on this issue in the legislature,” Cortese said. “It’s going to take all hands on deck… because that’s how pervasive the problem is.”
To learn more about the signs and symptoms of fentanyl poisoning, visit the U.S. National Institutes of Health website at nida.nih.gov/publications/drugfacts/fentanyl.
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