Students learn about consequences of drug abuse

Paramedics work on a patient who overdosed on drugs during a party during the skit A Drug Story.| Melissa Cason/FCT

Franklin County’s sixth graders got a glimpse of the consequences of  drug use this week as Franklin County Community Education teamed up with Russellville City School Safe and Drug Free Schools program to present A Drug Story.
Safe and Drug Free Schools Counselor Nancy Cooper said this is  the seventh  year the program has been presented to sixth grade students at Russellville Middle School. However, this is the first year Franklin County schools were invited to the event.
“We are so glad we were able to piggyback on this event to bring it to our Franklin County students,”  Community Education Director Susan Hargett said. “It worked out so that we could collaborate and work together on this project.”
Students from Vina, East Franklin and Tharptown attended the event in addition to the students at Russellville Middle School.
The story follows a student who uses alcohol and drugs. The storyline takes the students from the arrest to the jail; and inside the courtroom and drug rehab session.
The story line also shows what can happen when drug and alcohol use gets out of hand.
During the emergency room scene,  Russellville Hospital nurse manager Jeff Rice talked to the students about the treatment of accidental drug overdose.
“This scene is played out in hospitals across this country 35,000 times per year,”  Rice told the students. “It’s what’s called an accidental overdose. Kids don’t mean to hurt themselves, but it happens because of drug and alcohol addiction.”
Rice said enough teens are killed each year to fill 100 jumbo jets full.
“It’s like taking 100 jumbo jets and lining them up and filling them with teens, and then crashing them into the ground,” Rice said.
He said southern states have the highest rate of accidental overdose in the U.S., and there have been 12 accidental overdose patients in Russellville Hospital since August 2009.
“I became nurse manager in August, and I’ve been keeping a record of things. Since August, there have been 12 overdose patients in our emergency room. Four of those patients had to be admitted to the I.C.U. (Intensive Care Unit),” Rice said.
Cooper and Hargett said the event had great support from the community.
“We would like to thank everyone who helped with this event,” Cooper said.  “It always takes several volunteers to make this happen.”
First  Baptist Church, Riverbend, Red Bay Police Department, Russellville Police Department, District Attorney Joey Rushing, the Franklin County Juvenile Probation Office, NorthStar Paramedic Service, Franklin County HOSA students, RHS SADD students, The Healing Place Distinctive Design, and community volunteers: Kathy Archer, Greg Beasley, Richard Parker, Clint Busler and Patty Hughes were all participants in the event.
Hargett and Cooper said they hope to continue to work together next year to bring as many students into the program as possible.