“This is a significant problem that Americans tend to underestimate, the risk that’s associated with these medications.”

– Dr. Donald Teater, medical adviser to the National Safety Council, on a new report that shows the vast majority of Americans are unaware of the risk of addiction associated with opiate painkillers and don’t know that sharing pills with friends and family is against the law. In 2012, Oklahoma had the fifth-highest unintentional poisoning mortality rate in the US (Source)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carly Putnam joined OK Policy in 2013. As Policy Director, she supervises policy research and strategy. She previously worked as an OK Policy intern, and she was OK Policy's health care policy analyst through July 2020. She graduated from the University of Tulsa in 2013. As a student, she was a participant in the National Education for Women (N.E.W.) Leadership Institute and interned with Planned Parenthood. Carly is a graduate of the Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits Nonprofit Management Certification; the Oklahoma Developmental Disabilities Council’s Partners in Policymaking; The Mine, a social entrepreneurship fellowship in Tulsa; and Leadership Tulsa Class 62. She currently serves on the boards of Restore Hope Ministries and The Arc of Oklahoma. In her free time, she enjoys reading, cooking, and doing battle with her hundred year-old house.

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