BECKLEY, WV (WOAY) – Students from the WVU Tech nursing department partnered with the West Virginia Attorney General to visit schools and teach kids about the dangers of opioid abuse.
This initiative is one of many that Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has created to combat the opioid crisis. His office has previously been responsible for a lawsuit against the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration aimed at reforming the drug quota system, and creating the Kids Kick Opioids public service announcement.
WVU Tech partnered with the Attorney General’s office to bring college students into middle school classrooms. They were accompanied by Justin Arvon, a consumer outreach and compliance specialist with the office of the attorney general. Arvon says that it’s imperative that students learn about the opioid epidemic, because at some point they will interact with prescription drugs in some way.
“It’s important because whether you’re in athletics or not, everybody’s got some type of access to this medication,” Arvon said.
And despite being so young, many students in Southern West Virginia have already had some interactions with opioids or other drugs, furthering how imperative it is that they learn about the dangers of prescription drug abuse sooner rather than later.
“The students are very inquisitive. They have a lot of information of their own that they bring up after the presentation. Some of it’s sad from personal experience. So it’s always a good time to get in here and at least give the understanding to these kids of the dangers of this.”
Park Middle School is just one of many schools the Attorney General is trying to reach through this program. They have interest in expanding the program to many other counties in Southern West Virginia.
“We’re actually with other universities around the state and other regions doing the same thing. We’d like to texpand it in this region to some more schools down to Summers County, Greenbrier County as well – even in Fayette County.”
The Attorney General has partnered with a total of six universities across the state to get college students to teach children about drug prevention. They hope to expand the program in the future to reach more people.
“It’s our office’s goal to reach as many people through the children as possible and Mr. Morissey’s wanting to do this for a long time and we’ve finally been able to accomplish it.”
Later this month, the program will be at Trap Hill Middle School and Greater Beckley Christian School.
