CHARLESTON – West Virginia, the state with the highest drug overdose death rate in the country, will seek again this year to promote student awareness of prescription painkiller abuse with the 2018 Kids Kick Opioids contest.
Run by the office of West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, the contest is open to middle and elementary school students who are asked to submit artwork, poems, letters or stories, anything that calls attention to substance abuse.
The contest deadline for students to submit drug-awareness and prevention pieces is Thursday, March 29. Children may work individually or in a group to submit entries. The winners including first place and runners-up get their entries featured in the attorney general's statewide newspaper public service announcement, and regional winners will have their works displayed in the capitol.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey
“The purpose of the Kids Kick Opioids contest is to raise awareness about the dangers of prescription drug abuse among West Virginia’s youth,” Morrisey told The West Virginia Record in a statement.
Morrisey said past submissions have been a chilling reminder that some of the youngest victims of the opioid crises can be found in classrooms across the state.
“These children have lost loved ones, in some cases parents and siblings, to this senseless crisis,” Morrisey said.
Morrisey said continuing the contest again this year opens up a line of communication between students and educators.
“We need to continue these conversations and do everything in our power to preserve and protect the future of our children,” he said.
Nearly 900 West Virginians died in 2016 as a result of a drug overdose according to a Feb. 16 newstribune.info report. The report said the attorney general’s office has set up a multi-front effort, including increased funding to combat substance abuse, more criminal prosecutions and health educators sharing anti-drug information with an estimated 4,600 eighth-grade students in the state.
Kids Kick Opioids Contest entries can be emailed to AGPSA.contest@wavgo.gov, or mailed to the Attorney General Office at 1900 Kanawha Blvd. E. State Capitol Bldg. 1, Room 26-E, Charleston.