TOWAMENCIN – Since the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program in fifth grade, students have heard about the harmful effects of drug and alcohol use and abuse. Although some students feel the content has grown predictable over the years, yesterday North Penn students received an eerie wake-up call about how serious this problem has become.
“If you know of someone who uses drugs, or you yourself use drugs, please get them help”. This was at the forefront of the N.O.P.E Task Force’s (Narcotics Overdose Prevention & Education) presentation for North Penn students.

The auditorium stage was aligned with 26 portraits and school pictures of innocent teens and young adults. By a glance, one would not have known that they were victims of drug overdoses.
Members and advocates of the N.O.P.E. Task Force, a non-profit organization “to combat the illegal use of prescription drugs and narcotics as well as other abused substances”, presented an eye-opening assembly on the deadly effects of combined drug and alcohol abuse.

The N.O.P.E program originated in Florida in the early 2000s, and was more recently brought to Delaware County in 2013, and then Chester and Montgomery County in 2014.

The presentation began with a video dramatization of the harmful effects of combining prescription drugs and alcohol. It concluded with a poignant slideshow of various adolescents who became addicted to narcotics and/or prescription drugs and eventually died as a result of their preventable diseases.
Students received first-hand accounts from people whose loved ones were victims of drug overdoses. Speakers included Officer Mark Stead, a school resource officer for Methacton School District and a Lower Providence cop, who shared of first hand experiences about dealing with the aftermath of a drug overdose. Ashley Seneko and Marissa Wadsworth also shared the stories or their brother and son (respectively), whom they recently lost due to overdoses.

 
“This addiction is very hard to overcome, and we see it on the news everyday about kids dying from overdosing, and/or alcohol related accidents. I know, from my experience at least, that if TJ would not have taken that first pill, he would still be here today. That is what my goal is to do with this program….to help prevent kids from taking that first pill,” Wadsworth explained.
Often referring to “drug addiction” as a “preventable disease”, N.O.P.E. portrayed drug addiction as an illness that can be prevented if drugs are left alone in the first place.

Not only did the N.O.P.E. Task Force educate students on the importance of abusing prescription drugs, narcotics, and alcohol, they also advocated for students to be “heroes”. N.O.P.E. encouraged students to speak up if aware that a friend or someone they know is abusing drugs or becoming addicted.
“The program is important to us, and if it can touch just one person’s, and save one person’s life, then the program is doing its job. I think the student reception was fairly good and people took heed to what we were trying to stress to them today,” explained Kaitlyn Genthert, prevention specialist.