Danish schools in the Copenhagen region are introducing emergency plans and student support measures as upper secondary schools respond to growing concern over opioid misuse among young people.
Copenhagen schools build a coordinated opioid response
Twenty-five upper secondary schools in North Zealand and Copenhagen have joined a coordinated effort to address the use of highly addictive opioids among students. The initiative is designed to help schools identify warning signs, respond more consistently and support young people who may be using the drugs to self-medicate anxiety, restlessness or poor mental well-being.
The network is led by Henrik Boberg Bæch, principal of Espergærde Gymnasium and HF, who told TV 2 Kosmopol that schools had found the issue difficult to manage because misuse can be hard to detect and staff were often unsure about the most appropriate response.
The schools contacted the Capital Region of Denmark (Region Hovedstaden) after concerns grew among principals. The cooperation has since developed into a broader regional prevention effort involving school leaders, health professionals and municipal addiction services.
Emergency plans replace a purely disciplinary approach
The new approach includes emergency response plans, professional guidance and student support programmes. The aim is not only to react when a case is discovered, but to create clearer routines for teachers, counsellors and school leaders when they suspect that a student may be misusing opioids or other drugs.
The regional initiative focuses on network meetings for school resource persons, expert briefings, knowledge-sharing across schools and municipalities, and practical tools adapted to the upper secondary school context. Region Hovedstaden has allocated 500,000 Danish kroner, about €67,000, to the cooperation, with an additional 300,000 kroner, about €40,000, set aside to extend the work to more youth education programmes.
At Espergærde Gymnasium and HF, student Caroline Hansen welcomed the change, saying the initiative treats affected students as young people who need help rather than as pupils who should simply be removed from school.
Center For Sundhed i Region Hovedstaden
Danish opioid data show a low but serious youth risk
The school initiative comes as Danish health authorities and media report growing concern over opioid-related harm. According to figures cited by Berlingske from the Danish Health Authority (Sundhedsstyrelsen), Denmark recorded 153 poisoning-related deaths in 2024, with opioids considered the presumed cause in 113 cases.
The same figures show that emergency department visits linked to opioid intoxication across all age groups increased from 1,289 in 2021 to 1,414 in 2024.
National surveys suggest that opioid use among young people remains limited, but not negligible. A 2024 survey commissioned by the Danish Health Authority found that 2.7% of respondents aged 18 to 25 had tried opioids or benzodiazepines, while 1.4% said they had done so within the previous year. The authority later stressed that these figures should be read as indications, because surveys on sensitive topics may underestimate actual use.
Among 15- to 17-year-olds, a separate 2024 report examined how prescription opioids and benzodiazepines, normally medicines that require a doctor’s prescription, are also present on the illegal market. The report looked at age, gender, education, reasons for use and sources of access.
Self-medication makes prevention harder for schools
The concern for schools is not only recreational drug use. According to the regional prevention work, some young people use opioids to regulate difficult emotions or cope with mental distress. This links the issue to broader debates on youth well-being, school pressure and access to early support.
That makes prevention more complex than traditional anti-drug campaigns. Danish health authorities have advised local actors to respond quickly where young people are experimenting with opioids, but also to avoid broad campaigns that may unintentionally increase curiosity among groups not already exposed to the drugs.
The government’s 2024 action plan, “Youth without opioids” (Ungdom uden opioider), also points to social media as a relevant channel for illegal opioid sales and proposes targeted prevention, better information for parents and stronger support for municipal treatment services.
A Nordic welfare challenge inside the classroom
The coordinated response in Copenhagen and North Zealand places schools at the centre of a wider public health issue. In a Nordic context, where education, health and social services are often expected to cooperate closely, the initiative shows how opioid misuse among young people is increasingly being treated as both a school welfare problem and a health risk.
For the schools involved, the next challenge will be implementation: ensuring that staff know how to act, students trust the support systems, and regional health services can respond before misuse becomes addiction or a medical emergency.
