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| Students practice presenting to their classmates about their research. |
By Rachael Stowe
Students have recently wrapped up the main portion of the heroin
epidemic project. On Wednesday March 15th, students in the Economics
class gathered with students from the Government class in small groups and
reviewed the bill the Government students had written. The previous week the
Econ classes had gotten into small groups and written out feedback on what to
cut, revise and add to the bill. They then made comments based on this written
feedback in a Google Doc version of the bill.
When they met with the Government
students, they separated again into smaller groups and vocalized
their concerns and comments to the Government students. This feedback will then
be used to revise the bill. Included in these comments were notes on the total
cost of the provisions listed in the bill.
The Economic students then researched and compiled these numbers. Having these cost amounts helped the Government students realize just how much the things that were listed in the bill would cost. Because of the large total cost, the Government students came to the realization that they would need to cut certain aspects of the bill to make it more likely to be passed.
On Thursday March 16th, groups of Anatomy and
Physiology students presented to small groups of students from either Econ or
Government during 3rd and 6th period. Each of their
presentations included information like the connection between the brain and
addiction, what overdoses are and how they impact the body, and the types of
treatment for addiction. The presenters also created different activities, like
Kahoot quiz games or board games, to test the students acquired knowledge of
the information they had presented. This information was important to the
project as a whole, and the hope through presenting these facts was that the
Econ and Government students would better understand the disease and struggle
of addiction and keep this information in mind while revising their bill.
The bill now discusses three main topics: rehabilitation,
prescription methods, and mail distribution.
The rehabilitation part of the bill
proposes mandatory rehabilitation centers in prisons as well as providing
rehabilitation services as part of parole. This section also includes some
assistance in paying for rehab programs and the expansion of many pre-existing
rehabilitation facilities.
The second portion, prescription methods, directly
tries to prevent opioids from being misused in the first place by regulating
prescription opioids. One of the largest ideas in this plan is to create an
“pharmacy network of communication” so doctors can see how many prescriptions
for opioids have been filled and can even contact pharmacies to prevent
refills.
The final main section is about the mail distribution of opioids. This
proposes a two-step process for checking mail for opioids. This process
requires spectrometry drug detection machines and K9 units. These measures
would be put in place to help prevent the transportation of opioids through the
mail system, which is a common mode of transportation for drug cartels.
Even though the in-class portion of the heroin project is
almost over, the out-of-class portion is just beginning. Later this month, select
students from Econ and Government will go present the bill. This is the first
step to getting the legislation actually introduced into the Ohio legislative
branch. Students have mixed feelings about the project almost being over. “It
was a good project”, says one student. “It was definitely a lot of work, so I
won’t miss that part, but I will miss feeling like I am working on something so
groundbreaking and important. I am glad to have had this opportunity to impact
our state and the opioid epidemic. ”
