Release date:
5/18/2018
(RALEIGH) Attorney General Josh Stein and the members of the Attorney General’s Council on Collegiate Opioid Misuse today released a toolkit to help guide students seeking to combat the opioid epidemic on college campuses. The Attorney General’s Council on Collegiate Opioid Misuse, a delegation of students from college and universities across North Carolina who are committed to addressing collegiate opioid misuse, met in-person four times over the 2017-2018 school year. This report is the product of their efforts.
“College students are creative, intelligent, hard-working partners in our efforts to combat the opioid epidemic,” said Attorney General Josh Stein. “I’ve been inspired by these students as we’ve worked together over the last year to help keep their peers safe and healthy. I hope young people across North Carolina will use these strategies to create meaningful change in their communities.”
The Attorney General’s Council on Collegiate Opioid Misuse met with professionals in a range of disciplines related to substance misuse and to discuss strategies for addressing substance misuse at their schools. The meetings focused on prevention, treatment, enforcement, and policymaking. They took place at Appalachian State University, UNC-Wilmington, Winston-Salem State University, and NC State University.
Eliza Filene, a member of the Council, is a senior public policy major at UNC-Chapel Hill. After graduation, she hopes to work in opioid use prevention and pursue medical school.
“Being a part of this council was an incredibly eye-opening and exciting experience,” said Eliza. “I think all of us—from student government officials to graduate students in public health to representatives of campus recovery programs—learned something from our time together. It’s easy to exist in our own separate silos when it comes to combatting the opioid epidemic and this was a powerful example of folks coming together. Plus, from our time with Attorney General Stein we had the chance to see firsthand how policy can make an impact on the ground.”
“As we were working with the council, our communities were grappling with the opioid epidemic both on campus and across the state,” said Eliza. “One of my favorite parallel experiences was at the Daily Tar Heel, of which I was a member of the editorial board. The paper ran a series on the opioid epidemic. Each piece was very powerful and focused on a different face of the epidemic—from mothers struggling with substance use disorders to medical school curriculums.” The toolkit includes a variety of resources for students seeking to tackle opioid misuse on their campuses. The resources include strategies for building coalitions, raising awareness and effectively communicating messages, implementing preventative measures, and enhancing treatment and recovery resources on campus.
Please access the full report here.
NCDOJ Contact:
Laura Brewer (919) 716-6484
Student Contact:
Eliza Filene (919) 537-2119
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