By: Yvonne Nachtigal
Volunteer State Community College did its part to raise awareness about drugs on Oct. 25.
“Nugs for Drugs,” the drug-take-back event was where students had the opportunity to drop off prescription medications and get some chicken nuggets in exchange.
Included in the school’s Diversity Awareness Week, Nugs for Drugs was organized by Student Engagement and Support.
Inclement weather caused the event to close before the scheduled 2 p.m. end time.
“Several students came up and said they forgot. It will be back, but most likely indoors,” said Coordinator of Student Support Tiffany Zwart.
Zwart said that more than 20 students dropped off prescriptions, which were turned in to campus police to properly dispose of.
According to Zwart, Nugs for Drugs is essentially the “Count It, Lock It, Drop It” campaign, which aims to prevent prescription drugs, particularly opioids, from getting into the wrong hands and prevent people from flushing medications into the water supply.
In September, the Tennessean reported that Tennessee may be gaining on prescription drug abuse.
The article said that likely because opioid prescriptions are becoming less common throughout Tennessee, deaths attributed to them have dropped for the first time in five years.
“If you have less prescriptions and less of this stuff out there, then less of it can be stolen and less of it can be sold on the illegal market,” said co-founder of Healthy Tennessee Dr. Manny Sethi.
According to new state overdose statistics, opioid overdoses killed 1,268 people in Tennessee in 2017.
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