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The night my brother Harrison died, he'd been to a party. He'd had a cold that week, and my dad had given him some over-the-counter cold medicine to help. My family thinks he mixed the cold medicine with alcohol and OxyContin that he took at the party. The combination shut down his respiratory system. My mom found him in bed the next morning. It was the day before Thanksgiving. He wasn't even 18 yet.
I started working with Not in My House, a campaign launched by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and Abbott Labs, and learned how simple it can be to prevent this kind of death: Lock up your prescription drugs and keep an inventory. When they expire, mash them up and put them in a coffee can with used grounds. And don't share prescription drugs. My parents didn't know any of this.
They found Harrison's marijuana when he was 15 and flushed it down the toilet. They got him into therapy, and everything seemed fine. Then he had a wreck. He said he swerved to avoid hitting a dog, but my dad gave him a drug test and found he was using prescription drugs. My parents got him intensive outpatient treatment, all day, every day. He seemed fine again. He was making exceptional grades in high school in Tulsa. He really liked English, poetry, and art. He hadn't nailed down what he wanted to study in college.
I want people to know that you could go to practically any school and get a pill with your lunch money. Few parents know about the dangers of prescription drugs. It's not something anyone thinks about.
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