Nexus Coalition reports naloxone distribution and rising vaping among youth

Vicki Solomon, executive director of the Nexus Coalition for Drug Prevention, updated the Pinetop-Lakeside council on the coalition’s prevention and outreach work and the drug trends she is seeing locally.

Solomon said Nexus’s grant-year totals for the most recent fiscal year included roughly 14,000 youth contacts, about 5,700 adult contacts, 885 activities, and 962 naloxone kits distributed along with training. She said education outreach reached roughly 53,097 people during the grant year.

Solomon told the council Arizona has been heavily impacted by fentanyl, saying “out of about a hundred million pills that were discovered from DEA in all 50 states, 50% of them were coming up through Arizona.” She urged continued naloxone distribution and training, noting that even a single pill containing fentanyl can be fatal.

Council members asked about local trends. Solomon said the proportion of counterfeit pills containing lethal doses of fentanyl has fluctuated — she estimated that about six months earlier seven of 10 pills were lethal doses and that figure has fallen to about five of 10 — but emphasized the data are variable and any pill can be deadly. She also described vaping as “on the rise,” recounted a diversion-case student who said he had been vaping since age five and described instances where students flushed devices and caused plumbing damage at Blue Ridge schools.

Solomon described Nexus’s school-based curricula, naloxone distribution, community partnerships with law enforcement, the National Guard and other organizations, and ongoing youth leadership programs. She said Nexus operates with a staff that covers the Pinetop-Lakeside area and that partners use the town-owned Yellowjacket Center for meetings and youth programming.