The Prevention, Education, and Advocacy in Community (PEACe) Office, which focuses on various issues relating to student health, plans to install NaloxBoxes — first aid boxes containing naloxone — in Paresky Center and Sawyer Library’s 24-hour room in the coming months. The initiative comes after the PEACe Office held four Narcan training and overdose prevention education sessions this January.
Narcan Nasal Spray was “designed to rapidly reverse the effects of a life-threatening opioid emergency,” according to its website. Its active ingredient, naloxone blocks the effects of opioids by competing to bind to opioid receptors in the brain. The over-the-counter nasal spray comes in a portable, single-use device designed to be administered by the general public, without medical training or authorization.
The recent training series was sponsored by Berkshire Harm Reduction (BHR) and Campus Safety Services (CSS) and was led by the College’s Director for Emergency Management, Amalio Jusino. They are part of an effort to expand harm reduction efforts on campus and reduce stigma, Assistant Director of Health Education Laini Sporbert told the Record.
Harm reduction is a public health approach to substance use that began in the 1980s. The College, under Sporbert’s guidance, has been working to implement harm reduction practices for over 20 years, Sporbert said. Rather than focusing on abstinence from substances, harm reduction aims to lessen the negative social and psychological effects of substance use and save lives whenever possible. As the opioid crisis has continued to spread across the United States, this approach has become an increasingly important tool for reducing opioid fatalities.
Ongoing harm reduction efforts at the College include the Office of Emergency Management, which regularly offers naloxone training through its CPR and automated external defibrillator (AED) training program. Naloxone training has been provided to over 200 employees at the College. Jusino is also in the process of scheduling these classes for all campus community members, according to an op-ed authored by Sporbert, Jusino, and Director of the PEACe Office Meg Bossong ’05 last November.
“You put your seatbelt on in the car — that’s harm reduction,” Sporbert said. “You keep track of how many drinks you’re having — that’s harm reduction. Having Narcan on hand is another one of those methods.”
The process to bring Narcan to the College has been long, Sporbert said. “Bringing Narcan to campus is something that I asked about seven to 10 years ago,” she said. “Since then, campus safety assessments have been done on campus, and harm reduction is one of those things that came up really high on the list of services we should provide.”
Following the nonfatal opioid overdose of a visitor to campus in 2023, the College expedited its decision to have CSS officers carry Narcan, Sporbert said.
Although there is not a recorded instance of student use of opioids at the College according to Sporbert, contaminants such as fentanyl and xylazine are increasingly common in recreational drugs and on college campuses, which Sporbert cited as another reason for expanding access to Narcan on campus. “You never know when there will be [opioids on campus],” Sporbert said. “You’d rather be safe than sorry.”
The PEACe Office also partners with Berkshire Health Systems to bring its BHR Mobile Unit to campus on the first Tuesday of each month, which distributes naloxone, other overdose prevention and harm reduction supplies, sharps disposal services, and free and confidential sexually transmitted infection testing and prevention information for students, staff, faculty, and community members. Imogen Mandl-Ciolek ’24, a public health concentrator who volunteers at BHR, emphasized the importance of accessibility to Narcan. “Even if it’s not a problem you associate with, there’s always a chance that you encounter someone who could be overdosing,” she said.
Other students have also taken action for increased Narcan access on campus. In October, the Record published an op-ed by Mariel Baez ’26 calling for more harm prevention at the College. Leo Margolies ’26, a resident of Hubbell House, made Narcan available in the building’s communal condom and candy bowl before all Hubbell residents were relocated in January for structural repairs. “Freshman year, I took the EMT course over Winter Study, and one of [its] top recommendations for something we could do in our lives as EMTs to benefit the community was carrying Narcan,” Margolies said. “Narcan shouldn’t be accessible because we think there’s going to be an issue — it should be accessible because, if there is an issue, it’s way better that it be easily accessible than not there at all.”
