UVic rolls out naloxone kits, AEDs in residences in wake of fatal overdose

As University of Victoria students settle into a new school year, there are signs everywhere of lessons learned from last year’s overdose death of a first-year student.

Each floor of the residence buildings has a nasal naloxone kit — 210 in all — and an automated external defibrillator. There are signs advising students to first call 911 in an emergency, and then campus security.

The university says it has improved security training and equipment, and undertaken blunt talk with students on the risk of using deadly illicit drugs, as well as ways to reduce harms. Residence buildings are now clearly labelled with numbers that are co-ordinated with first-responder maps.

The changes stem from last year’s death of first-year student Sidney McIntyre-Starko, who went into cardiac arrest after h