Education is the most powerful weapon to combat opioid crisis

As we confront the epidemic of prescription opioid misuse and heroin use that is sweeping the nation, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is aggressively pursuing the cartel kingpins, neighborhood gangs, rogue doctors, drug peddlers — all of those responsible for pushing the pills, powder, and poison in our communities and fueling violence on the streets.

But we have long recognized that enforcement is only part of the solution, and this holds true now more than ever as this drug crisis is unlike any before. It is driven, in part, by legal drugs, as people get addicted to prescription painkillers and then turn to heroin as a cheaper alternative. We hear countless stories of overdose victims whose opiate addiction started with pills that can be found in medicine cabinets.

We are also confronted with new drugs, new markets, and new suppliers that are, to some extent, changing the face of the illicit drug business. Unscrupulous dealers are mixing fentanyl, carfentanil or other fentanyl-related substances into heroin products or pressing them into counterfeit pills, often without the users’ awareness. There are now synthetic drugs and research chemicals popping up in our neighborhoods that our chemists have never seen before.

We need to have conversations about the true nature of this drug epidemic. We need to increase education on how opioids affect the body and the brain. We need to reach our youth — nearly 1 in 5 teens nationwide say they have used prescription medicine at least once in their lifetime to get high.

Just recently, the DEA has joined forces with Discovery Education, the leading provider of digital content and professional development for K-12 classrooms, to launch Operation Prevention (operationprevention. com). This is an educational program for middle and high school classrooms that aims to educate students, using science, about the impact of opioids. The program also offers tool kits for parents to identify warning signs of opioid misuse. Additionally, we will be participating in a series of upcoming educational forums with local partners in South Florida.

Education is the most powerful weapon we have to combat this crisis. It is imperative that we provide students with the tools to make smart, informed choices, and empower families to take action.