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West Texas school districts receive doses of Narcan

"Time is of the essence, so if you have it on hand, it's definitely a good thing, you know they have a good chance at survival."

BREWSTER COUNTY, Texas — Fentanyl is a problem in communities all throughout the state.

"Unfortunately it's in our neck of the woods now in the Big Bend area," said Gayla Owen, director of health services for Alpine ISD. "They've had multiple seizures of fentanyl."

One local nonprofit, the Big Bend Hospital District, is stepping up to make sure Narcan is accessible to all communities.

"They dispersed it to a lot of the West Texas schools, Terlingua, Marfa, Presidio, Marathon, Alpine, and then also to our local university, Sul Ross State University," said Owen.

Even though Alpine ISD hasn't seen any overdoses, its better to be safe than sorry.

"I'm so thankful that the hospital district donated it to our school," said Owen. "You just don't know anymore, the world is so crazy these days."

Narcan can save a life, because seconds count when someone is experiencing and overdose.

"Terlingua, the hospital's about an hour, hour and a half to get to the hospital, so time is of the essence," said Owen. "So if you have it on hand, it's definitely a good thing, you know they have a good chance at survival."

Alpine has two doses of Narcan at each one of their campuses. Owen said they are working with border patrol to help train staff on how to use it and plan on having all staff trained by the start of next school year.

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