Attorney General Jack Conway has announced the winners of the 2013 Keep Kentucky Kids Safe public service announcement (PSA) contest. The annual competition for middle and high school students is part of General Conway's statewide prescription drug abuse awareness and prevention initiative.
This year's winning PSA was submitted by Calloway County High School. The students include Austin Alexander, Cameron Brown, Keaston Johnson, Braxton Bogard, Taylor Smith, and Jacob Garland. The winners will receive an Apple iPad, or cash equivalent, compliments of the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators (NADDI). You can view the winning PSA at
.Finishing second is a video submission also produced by a group of students from Calloway County High School. Those students include Alexander Aizpurua, Kaitlyn English, Kayla Little, Bradley Stokes, David Wann, and Xiaodong Wang. They will receive a $100 Amazon.com gift card donated by the Kentucky Pharmacists Association (KPhA). Both NADDI and KPhA are partners in the Keep Kentucky Kids Safe program. The PSA is available at
."I want to congratulate this year's winners and thank all of the students who participated in our PSA contest," General Conway said. "These students share our concern about a problem that is devastating families across the Commonwealth. Their video PSAs will serve as an important educational tool and a vivid reminder to their peers of the dangers of abusing prescription drugs."
Receiving an honorable mention in this year's Keep Kentucky Kids Safe PSA Contest is the Clark County ASAP Youth Network from George Rogers Clark High School. You can view the PSA at
. The group won last year's PSA competition.This year's winning PSAs and honorable mention are posted on the Attorney General's website at http://ag.ky.gov/rxabuse. The first-place video will also be included with anti-drug PSAs that the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy distributes to television stations across Kentucky.
KEEP KENTUCKY KIDS SAFE
In 2010, General Conway launched the Keep Kentucky Kids Safe initiative with the Kentucky Justice Cabinet and its Office of Drug Control Policy, Kentucky Pharmacists Association, National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators (NADDI), Operation UNITE and concerned parents. Since its launch, Attorney General Conway and his partners have warned more than 30,000 students, parents and teachers about the dangers of prescription drug abuse.
A recent survey has found that the percentage of Kentucky teens misusing prescription drugs has dropped dramatically over the past four years. According to the 2012 Kentucky Incentives for Prevention School Survey, the use of prescription drugs among students without a doctor's order has decreased steadily among sixth-, eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders since 2004. The declines have been the most significant since 2008, when the Attorney General's Office, along with state lawmakers and other agencies across the Commonwealth, began intensifying efforts to fight prescription drug abuse.
As part of the Keep Kentucky Kids Safe program, students are encouraged to participate in the annual statewide video PSA contest on the risks of prescription drug abuse. Additionally, high school seniors whose lives have been affected by this issue can now apply for the Sarah Shay and Michael Donta Memorial Scholarships. The scholarships were created this year to help Kentucky students who have excelled in their personal and academic lives despite seeing firsthand the devastating consequences of prescription drug abuse.
FACES OF PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE
Attorney General Conway invites Kentuckians of all ages to share their stories about how prescription drug addiction has affected their families and communities through his "Faces of Prescription Drug Abuse" video series. Videos may be submitted by visiting the Attorney General's website at http://ag.ky.gov/rxabuse.
