OKC students learn about Rx drug safety
With water, solution and the shake of a bottle, Oklahoma City high school students demonstrated how to keep prescription drugs from the hands of addiction.
Students at Capitol Hill High School broke down the contents inside medication bottles with Dispose Rx packets on Friday, capping off their completion of the Prescription Drug Safety program. Using Smarties candies in place of pills, the group practiced how to dispose of unused medications.
High schools across 26 counties in central and northeast Oklahoma received a free prescription drug safety curriculum through a partnership with Walmart. Students completed the course on the online platform Ever fi to learn the dangers of abusing prescription drugs and how to properly dispose of them.
“We learned the different effects it takes on people,” said Marisol Castro, a senior at Capitol Hill. “With the information we learned, we can spread it to other people and tell them about the damage it does.”
From 2011 to 2015, more than 2,509 Oklahomans died from prescription drug overdoses and 2,113 from overdoses on prescription opioids, according to the State Health Department. More adults in the state died of prescription opioid overdoses than motor vehicle crashes during that time.
Castro said the online course described the national opioid crisis and how to recognize symptoms of prescription drug abuse among their peers.
Opioid abuse caused more than 399,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. over the past two decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Almost 218,000 people died from prescription opioid overdoses in that time.
“As we bring this curriculum to our kids, we have some confidence that they're able to handle some of the decision making that follows peer pressure with regard to prescription drugs,” said Sean McDaniel, superintendent of
Oklahoma City Public Schools. “We are just grateful to be on the front end of this and expose our kids to this information.”
Walmart has paid to bring similar drug education programs to schools in Arkansas, Colorado and Indiana. The company offers packets of Dispose Rx solution for free at all of its 4,700 pharmacy locations nationwide. The solution mixed with water dissolves pills into gel, making them inaccessible to those who might abuse them.
Leftover pills also can be dropped off at locations with drug disposal programs. Thirty-five pharmacies and medical centers in the Oklahoma City metro area have disposal sites registered with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter commended the Capitol Hill students for taking the drug safety course and Walmart for providing it. He said corporations that manufacture or distribute prescription drugs should help resolve the national opioid crisis.
“When 6,000 Oklahomans are no longer with us because of the lack of responsibility of companies that manufacture and sell prescription opioids, I've got a responsibility as the chief law officer of the state to hold those companies responsible and to do the best that we can to try to get this epidemic abated,” Hunter said after speaking with Capitol Hill students Friday.
Hunter's office won a lawsuit against opioid manufacturer Johnson & Johnson in a sixweek trial this summer in Cleveland County. The trial, which drew international attention, ended with a $465 million verdict against the company for triggering an opioid crisis in the state.
The attorney general said an appeal for the Johnson & Johnson case will come before the Oklahoma Supreme Court “fairly soon.” The state has reached settlements with Purdue Pharma for $270 million, Teva Pharmaceuticals for $85 million and Endo Pharmaceuticals for $8.75 million for their alleged roles in contributing to opioid addiction and death in Oklahoma.
“In the meantime, having entities like Walmart and Ever fi step up and provide a program that is free of charge is considered a contribution to the state and a contribution to Oklahoma's young people,” Hunter said. “An important part of our abatement proposal was prevention education, so this is a perfect fit for that.”