The ubiquity of the synthetic painkiller fentanyl has supercharged the opioid crisis to the point that California schools are now making overdose treatments
SACRAMENTO ― California high school students will learn about their rights at work and how to defend themselves against workplace abuses under a first-of-its-kind law just signed by Governor Gavin Newsom over the weekend.
AB 800, authored by Assemblymember Liz Ortega (D-San Leandro), creates a Workplace Readiness Week at all public high schools to teach students about their workplace rights, protections for minors on the job, and how to join or start a union.
The opioid epidemic has been a slow-moving disaster that has claimed far too many lives in our communities, but the recent emergence of fentanyl has created a perfect storm leading to pandemic-level death rates.
The wreckage wrought on our communities is marked primarily by its toll on human life: More than 6,000 Californians died by overdose from fentanyl and other synthetic opioids in 2021.
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