Drugged Driving: An Examination of the Prescription Drug Crisis and Possible Interventions

Prescription drug misuse is becoming one of the fastest growing problems the U.S. faces. “Researchers estimate that in 2007, approximately 27,000 unintentional drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States, one death every 19 minutes”[i]. Many of these drugs are obtained because they were neither stored nor disposed of properly. In January 2018, Youth Connections and Helena’s Drugged Driving Prevention Task Force asked Carroll’s Public Health Theories and Practice course (PH333) to assess the problem of prescription drug abuse in our area and then to create, implement, and evaluate a program for area residents. Through the course, students completed a literature review, ten interviews, twelve environmental scans, and one focus group of parents to determine the extent of the problem. The students then created programs that included posters and community meetings to help educate area residents of this significant problem. Citation: [i] CDC grand rounds: prescription drug overdoses - a U.S. epidemic. MMWR. 2012 Jan 13;61(1):10-3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ pubmed/22237030. Accessed Feb 15, 2018