Author

Vanessa Baioni

Today we’re featuring an excerpt from Harlowquin, a scholarship winner from Pennsylvania who recently earned her Prescription Drug Safety certification. Congratulations to Harlowquin for being one of our scholarship recipients!

Student: Harlowquin S.

Teacher: Nicole Hetrick

School: Rockwood Area Junior-Senior High School

State: Pennsylvania

Sponsor: The Rite Aid Foundation 

“The EVERFI course that really connected the classroom to the real world was the Prescription Drug Safety module. From personal experience, the facts and evidence are accurate, and I do not want to go down the path of abusing prescription medication.

In the real world, the signs of drug abuse, whether it be prescription or illegal, is rampant with some young people taking pills for the fun of it. I’ve heard conversations about the usage of drugs; I keep quiet and eavesdrop just to hear which drugs are being abused. It’s no surprise that most of the drugs used are prescription. The course should be a requirement in schools no matter what subject it would be tied into. It shows how prescription drugs can be a gateway to harder drugs.

I like the segment of the module when it showed the starting signs of addiction. These red flags from the course are things students need to be aware of if they are using prescription pills for any reason. It’s very important to know the signs before it gets to the point where it’s arduous to escape the grips of addiction.

Another great thing in the course was the segment on how to express that you don’t want to use. Things such as peer pressure, social stigma, and the outlook on drugs are huge factors. Saying no when all others say yes and pressure you into doing them is a challenge, but with the course it helps them to express their decision against using.

It showed the various types of medications you could get addicted to which is extremely useful to have in mind when you actually get prescribed to that certain medication. Showing how easy it is to get hooked is a very good tactic for students to keep to the prescription guidelines. Everywhere you go, drug abuse is common. Students always get talked to about the horrors of drug usage, but they don’t seem to listen. This program is an excellent resource for students. It actually made an impact on me. I believe if elementary grade students such as 4th-6th graders took this course, drug usage in the high school would decrease by a lot. Since the students who took the course would be educated on the subject, drug abuse can be stopped. We just have to crack down on the younger generation. The EVERFI course would do an extraordinary job as an introduction to the problem that is drug abuse. ”