Students at Learning Alternatives are learning how to administer Naloxone through an Island Health initiative

Hope Lompe

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Gabriola Sounder

For the past two years, Alexa Meekison, a grade 12 student at Learning Alternatives, has been training people in her community how to use Naloxone, and just last month, she had the chance to teach administration of the life-saving drug to several principals in Nanaimo-Ladysmith Public Schools (NLPS).

Meekison was part of a group invited to present about the harms of drugs, risks, and youth drug use at the B.C. Drug Checking Symposium in February, which had more than 130 professionals, policy makers and community members from across B.C. and Canada in attendance.

She was also one of three students who received the Island Health Youth Harm Reduction Award in 2024.

“We started off just at our school, training teachers, training kids, and then we trained district principals a few weeks ago, which was pretty exciting,” Meekison said, and added that the head of the school board was also present.

“They’re all so respectful and such amazing people that I felt lucky to have such a great group of people to perform in front of,” she said.

Griffin Russell, Concurrent Clinician for Island Health says the Naloxone education is part of a health promotion initiative at Learning Alternatives. Students learn how to become trainers in Take Home Naloxone, and learn to share know the key risks, signs and symptoms of opioid poisoning. Use of the Naloxone kit is taught as part of the overall response, which includes calling 9-1-1, rescue breathing and Naloxone.

“Alexa is a kind-hearted, intelligent and passionate learner who showed steady courage and commitment in learning about such a real topic,” writes Russell in an email to the Sounder.

“Nanaimo and the rest of B.C. are grappling with the enduring drug poisoning emergency that continues to injure and kill far too many community members at an alarming rate for the past decade, with no end in sight.”

Meekison says before Russell came to do the education and training at their school she was completely unaware of the risks and harms associated with opioids and using unfamiliar drugs.

“We were taken aback, because we’ve never really heard about any of this, and we didn’t realize how strong of an epidemic it was causing,” she says.

Russell adds the program has relevance for youth at Learning Alternatives around their friends, family and parents relationship to substances. In some cases it can extend directly to the student’s own relationship with substances, and their risk of drug poisoning.

Meekison says this is true of what she has seen at school, and in her own life.

“I’ve known people who have dealt with overdoses and problems with drugs, and I think it’s so important for people to be aware of the harms and causes that drugs can give you, especially being so young,” she says.

“A lot of my family members have dealt with drugs and have come back from that and changed their life a little bit, which always inspired me.”

Students also learned about the Good Samaritan Overdose Act that protects people from charges for personal possession of substances if a drug poisoning occurs, writes Russell.

This piece is important, says Meekison. People should know not to be afraid to act if they see a person experiencing an overdose from opioids. 

“If someone you know is having an overdose or not responding, you can call the police. You won’t get in trouble for it. And I think it’s like the biggest thing people should be aware of,” she says. 

Substance drug checking has also been incorporated into the training. After taking a trip to see a safe injection site and drug testing facility, they were given envelopes where people can place drugs they plan to use to send off for results that tell the user what is in them.

In September, the B.C. government announced all boards of education across the province must have Naloxone kits and defibrillators readily available by Dec. 31, and develop a policy on unexpected health emergencies in their schools.

Several NLPS staff also took part in Naloxone training in October, “since we have kits in the schools, staff need to know how to use them,” wrote an NLPS spokesperson to the Sounder. They add they do not know of any case where naloxone has had to be administered in schools.

Meekison says having Naloxone in schools is not about giving students who try drugs a way out, but to have a lifesaving measure for when and if something goes wrong. She says even with marijuana, illicit substances could be laced in without a person knowing.

“We don’t want to promote the use of drugs. We want people to know that they’re going to use how to be safe about it and how, like to prevent it if they need to,” she says.

“Naloxone it’s very efficient, and it does really work, but there could be the off chance that you take something too strong and Naloxone isn’t 100 per cent.”

While not sure what is next after high school, this experience has made her realize a career path that involves helping people could be in her future.

“I love the thought of being able to help people in any way, and I think this is such a good way of doing it because of how intense the problem is, I think it would be a really great career path to follow,” she says.