Los Angeles · First sessions begin [term/year]

Fentanyl is a domestic emergency produced by an international relations failure.

Precursor chemicals made in China. Synthesis and trafficking through cartel networks in Mexico. Entry through the border and trade relationships the United States chooses to maintain. The Fentanyl Response Initiative works both ends of that chain — training LA students to survive the overdose in front of them, and pressing for the policy changes that would make that training unnecessary.

Partner with us Read the policy case

The chain, end to end

FRI works both ends of this line: naloxone in students' hands at the point of overdose, and advocacy aimed at the trade and enforcement decisions upstream.

Mission

To make overdose response ordinary knowledge in the Los Angeles high schools most exposed to fentanyl — and to argue, with the evidence those programs generate, that the crisis is solvable further upstream than anyone is currently treating it.

What FRI does

School sessions

A 75-minute session covering the international supply chain, overdose recognition, California's Good Samaritan Law, and hands-on naloxone training — with a free naloxone kit for every student.

Peer facilitators

Trained high school students run sessions at their own schools. The program is built to operate without the founder in the room.

Policy advocacy

Session outcome data is used to argue to LAUSD and LA County for institutionalizing school-based naloxone access — and to make the case for upstream action.

Where we work, and why

Equity is the delivery plan, not a paragraph.

FRI prioritizes LAUSD public schools in Boyle Heights, East LA, Huntington Park, and Panorama City — high-need communities where overdose exposure is highest and school-based naloxone access is thinnest. Curriculum is being developed in Spanish alongside promotora health networks, not machine-translated after the fact.

How we choose schools

Naloxone sourcing

Naloxone is obtained free through California's public health infrastructure — the CDPH Naloxone Distribution Project, NEXT Distro, and LA County Substance Abuse Prevention and Control. It is not purchased, and not routed through personal or family connections. That is deliberate: it makes the model replicable by any school or student organizer in the state.

Bring a session to your school.

Schools, funders, and prospective advisory board members can reach us directly.

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