About the Program
The Generation Rx Initiative, developed by The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy and funded by the Cardinal Health Foundation, is an educational program that increases public awareness of prescription medication abuse and encourages health care providers, community leaders, parents, teens, and college students to actively work to prevent abuse. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, every day approximately 2,500 young people between 12 and 17 years of age abuse a prescription painkiller for the first time. America’s largest drug problem is not on the street…it’s in our medicine cabinets. In fact, prescription medication abuse is the second leading cause of accidental death in the United States. More Americans abuse prescription medications than cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, and inhalants combined, and an astounding one in five teens abuses a prescription drug at least once in their lifetime. The student pharmacists at ETSU are committed to helping counter these trends by developing and supporting local and national initiatives that educate youth and their parents about the dangers of prescription medication abuse and what they can do to prevent it. Working together with our local school systems, our goal is to stop prescription drug abuse before it starts.
In addition, the student pharmacists at ETSU have developed a program for all healthcare providers, in which we start the conversation about prescription drug abuse and how to prevent it in our patients. To learn more about the Provider Toolkit, visit us here.