At Tuesday’s Parent Education event, representatives from the FBI presented Chasing the Dragon, a 49-minute documentary film produced by the FBI and DEA. The documentary features stark, first-person accounts told by individuals who have abused opioids or whose children have abused opioids, with tragic consequences. The film helped viewers understand how the abuse of prescription medications can quickly lead to opiate abuse and addiction. FBI Special Agents Matt Brummund and Karen Feeney answered parents’ questions after the film.
Cindy Haines `89 , mother of Elle Haines `21, attended the event. «We are facing a growing epidemic of opioid abuse. This includes prescription-based opioids, as well as increasingly available heroin and other street-based illicit drugs. The FBI messaging related to this offers timely and impactful resources for parents and all concerned citizens. Some of the preventive steps advised are almost alarmingly simple – you just need to know about them.»
Upper School students received age-appropriate programming on this topic this week as well. Three volunteers from «Walking for Wellness: Stop Heroin» presented during enrichment. Each of them has lost someone they love to heroin overdoses and one was in recovery, so the emphasis was on personal stories. Here’s their website: http://www.stopheroin.org/walking-for-wellness.html.
Each day 91 people die in the US from a prescription drug overdose. Upper School Counselor David Hotaling says, «After hearing more and more frequently about the increasing prevalence of prescription opioid and heroin overdoses, both locally and across the country, I started worrying that someday, this could impact our immediate community. I trust that none of our kids would set out to intentionally take heroin. But as I learned more about the connection with prescription pain medications and how frequently those are prescribed, I recognized the importance for more awareness on this topic. Without more awareness, any of us could be at risk for developing an addiction.»
Below is a link to Chasing the Dragon, the 49 minute documentary.