( Columbus, OH ) - The Ohio Department of Health is using a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to fund an awareness campaign aimed at teaching the public about safe medication practices.
“Take Charge Ohio” representatives plan to be in Hamilton County next week to talk about the new program.
According to the interactive and informative TakeChargeOhio.org website, every two hours an Ohioan dies from an unintentional drug overdose.
Almost 80 percent of heroin users who started last year say the got hooked on pain pills they were using non-medically at first.
Two years ago more than 631 million pain pills were prescribed in Ohio.
More than 60 percent of people who died from a drug overdose last year had a prescription for a controlled substance in the same time frame.
The website also lists a number of resources for recovery and Naloxone. Non-medical pain treatment methods are also featured.
A number of Ohio government groups and anti-prescription drug abuse groups are partnering together for the initiative.