Please join me and Leo Glavine August 23rd 2012 at the Berwick Lions Hall at 7pm to discuss Prescription Drug Abuse Education in our local schools. For many years Nova Scotia students have been educated on the dangers of illicit drugs . As we all know prescription drug abuse is just as common if not more common than illicit drug use in the Annapolis Valley and the rest of Nova Scotia. I have heard from many teachers and parents over the past year asking for prescription drug abuse education to be added to the current drug education offered in Nova Scotia schools . Not only do students need to be educated to make informed decisions but teachers must be given the tools to educated their students.  There is a drug awareness video called “Overtaken” which includes Rx drug abuse in its message. Overtaken has been shown in Florida schools over the past year and has received great responses from students and teachers. I submitted this video to our Education Department to review and they came back saying:

” While the video may be targeted at youth, our evaluators felt it is not reflective of local substance use patterns. Only a very small percentage of high school students abuse prescription drugs, and the video has no meaningful discussion of the role of alcohol in their problematic substance use.”

The Education Department has yet to come up with any other ideas on how they plan to give their students the tools they need to make informed decisions about prescription drug abuse. Many of the young people dying are not even addicts . They are people who made un educated choices. I encourage parents , teachers , and the concerned public to come out on August 23rd to participate in a discussion as to how we can prevent these senseless deaths with education and awareness!