Now is the Time to Fund Drug Education

Grassroots nonprofits like NOPE need assistance in order to expand innovative and effective anti-drug initiatives in classrooms, workplaces, buses and trains, sports arenas, and many other places.

As a nation, we need to push down the drug overdose rates and to educate the next generation of youths to stay clear of abusing powerful painkillers and anti-anxiety pills. 

How do we do that? One way is through more funding.

In our line of work at NOPE Task Force, we are focused on addressing troubling data like this: In 2010, two million people reported using prescription painkillers non-medically for the first time within a 12-month period – nearly 5,500 a day – many of them teenagers and young adults.

Our communities have to reverse the patterns of how drugs are abused, especially among youths. For instance, most teenagers who abuse prescription drugs get them for free from friends or relatives – often without their knowledge. Many teens abuse medication to get high or because they think drugs will help them with schoolwork.

Grassroots nonprofits like NOPE could use extra public and private funds to expand innovative and effective anti-drug initiatives in classrooms, workplaces, buses and trains, sports arenas, and many other places so many more youths and adults can be reached. We specifically have to connect with more students during school hours so they can be around their peers, teachers and counselors when they learn about the dangers of abusing drugs and the painful outcomes of drug overdoses.

NOPE reaches close to 100,000 students a year through our drug presentations at schools, colleges, and community centers. Our staff and volunteers see first-hand what happens the moment students get the message that drugs can kill: they cry, they seek help, and they vow not to use drugs. It’s very powerful.

NOPE also puts on annual candle light vigils in late October across the nation. These vigils, organized in nearly 50 communities and attended by thousands of people, strive to raise awareness and open the doors to recovery by eliminating the prejudice that follows the disease of addiction.

Our nation is at the crossroads in the fight against prescription pills abuse.

We are turning the corner on this dark chapter by educating the masses about drug abuse. With more funding, though, groups like NOPE can reach many more students and communities and have an even bigger impact on reducing drug usage.

Now is the time to fund drug education programs even more. 

Karen Perry is the executive director of NOPE Task Force.

Why we Advocate

NOPE is no stranger to fighting for legislation that reduces our nation’s drug abuse problems. Lately, the organization has joined the battle to keep Florida’s drug database on the books.

By Karen Perry

At the entrance to the NOPE office in West Palm Beach, Fla. is a wall filled with faces of those who died of drug overdoses, many looking forever happy in photos taken when long life seemed so certain.

These faces motivate us at Narcotics Overdose Prevention & Education (NOPE) Task Force to advocate for meaningful reforms at the state and federal levels in combating the proliferation of illegal drugs and the unlawful distribution of powerful prescription pills.

We believe young people cannot die from drug overdoses if they do not have access to drugs.

Lately, our efforts have focused on a remarkable shift in Florida’s main weapon against pill mills, the so-called rogue pain management clinics blamed for excessively dispensing powerful painkillers and fueling the illegal spread of prescription drugs throughout the Southeast.

On the morning of February 8, many of us at NOPE awoke to news that Gov. Rick Scott was moving to abolish a computer database that would track every prescription for narcotic drugs. He intended to repeal the 2009 law that would let doctors, pharmacists and others check whether a patient has received excessive narcotics prescriptions. His reason: the database was expensive to maintain and could violate the privacy of individuals.

Scott's proposal stunned our network of legislators, law enforcement officials and other advocates who fought with us for eight years -- yes, eight years -- until Florida finally adopted the same tool that 39 other states use to track the illegal distribution of narcotic drugs from pain clinics.

Many of us spent those eight years writing letters, attending rallies, driving to Tallahassee and pleading with legislators to pass the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, or PDMP. We were driven by the conviction that this database will reduce "doctor shopping" and save thousands of lives.

For us, especially me, this fight was very personal. My 21-year-old son died of a drug overdose from prescription pills and heroin in 2003. His death galvanized me to prevent more senseless overdose deaths. Creating a drug-monitoring program has been my passion and labor ever since.

NOPE is no stranger to fighting for legislation that reduces our nation’s drug abuse problems. 

We have advocated for creating a 911 Good Samaritan law in Florida to provide limited immunity from prosecution for people who report overdoses to the authorities. We also have looked at encouraging legislators to require that anyone brought into a Florida hospital with a drug overdose be compelled to participate in a substance abuse assessment by a licensed service provider.

But creating the prescription drug database has been our strongest cause. 

That morning in February, many NOPE supporters called us and posted on our Facebook page their outrage over the sudden decision to do away with the PDMP.

Barbara Constantino Raynor of North Carolina wrote: “That is crazy. It is difficult enough to get the doctors to stop giving narcotics to...everyone, at least this makes them accountable for what they are doing.”

“What a shock,” added Jill Levenson of Florida.

Within hours, we mobilized a facts-sheet and began talking to policy makers and the news media about the impact of the governor’s decision. I went to Tallahassee again to speak with key legislators.

As of this writing, we haven’t yet swayed the governor to overturn his opposition to the database. But NOPE and our network has helped bring renewed focus on prescription drug abuse, making it a leading news story across Florida and other states.

Perhaps the media attention got the governor thinking.

Weeks into the battle over the database, he and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi created a pill mill task force that will pull resources from state agencies to solve problems with prescription-drug abuse.

No matter what happens, we will keep the email, social media and phone chains going.

We can’t stop now.

That wall of faces in our office is there for a reason. 

If you value NOPE Task Force’s commitment to preventing drug overdoses, please consider a voluntary contribution to support the organization. Donate at www.nopetaskforce.org/donations.asp

Karen Perry is the executive director of NOPE Task Force. You can reach her at kperry@nopetaskforce.org.