Seen as a way to reduce overdose deaths, the course will be necessary for graduation beginning with the 2026–27 school year,
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill mandating that public and charter school students learn about the dangers of fentanyl as the drug continues to cause thousands of overdose deaths in the state.
Existing law requires high school instruction in sexual harassment and violence for grades 9–12. The new legislation,
Assembly Bill 2429, would amend the state’s education code to require fentanyl education, taught through existing health courses, as a prerequisite for high school graduation beginning with the 2026–27 school year.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, according to the California Department of Public Health. There were more than 6,000 fentanyl-related deaths in the state in 2021, the most recent data available.
“Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 49, and its impact is felt across the nation and globe,” Democrat Assemblyman David Alvarez, the bill’s author, said in a
statement.
He said AB 2429 “underscores the importance” of using education to combat the drug crisis and equipping communities to protect themselves.
Proposed high school coursework will include
information about what fentanyl is, the differences between legal and illegal use, the lethal dose of fentanyl, and how often fentanyl is laced into illegal drugs without users’ knowledge.
It will also instruct students about fentanyl-related
hypoxia, which occurs when bodily tissues do not receive enough oxygen after the drug is ingested and cannot maintain homeostasis.
Additional instruction will provide information about fentanyl test strips and how to obtain naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal drug.
