SCHOOLS GETTING DATA ON PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE

Middle Schools in West Virginia may have some new material when fall
arrives.

Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma is sending out four-page, four-color
booklets designed to give students in grades 5-8 information about the
dangers of prescription drug abuse.

Raleigh County schools have not yet received the material, but it is
something that could be beneficial to many students, school nurse
coordinator Ann Sammons said.

"I would like to see the information first, of course," Sammons said.
"But it sounds like it would be something valuable."

Unfortunately, Sammons added, prescription drug abuse is a problem -
even with students as young as middle school-age. Some students have
been known to take prescription medications from medicine cabinets at
home, bring them to school and share them.

Purdue's education program is based on the company's "Painfully
Obvious" prescription drug abuse awareness program. The material has
been created and is being distributed by Lifetime Learning Systems, a
division of Weekly Reader, to approximately 13,000 middle schools in
17 states, with help from an educational grant from Purdue. Educators
receive an instructors guide to assist them in presenting the program
to their classes.

The materials are being distributed this month in Florida, Kentucky,
Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia and
West Virginia. In addition, the materials will be sent to students in
a number of communities served by Purdue's community coalition
partners in Tennessee, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Washington,
Louisiana, Alabama and Connecticut.

"Prevention begins with awareness, and an important first step in the
prevention of prescription drug abuse by young people is to equip them
with knowledge and information about its potentially devastating
effects," said Clay Yeager, Purdue's director of Community
Partnerships.

"Through this program we are working to ensure that our youth will be
better equipped to make the right choices when it comes to the misuse
and abuse of prescription medications."

Purdue Pharma created the Painfully Obvious program as a public
service to raise awareness and educate parents, teachers and students
about the dangers and consequences of abusing prescription medicines.
Prior to the Painfully Obvious initiative, there was no national
program to specifically address the abuse of prescription medicines.

The company is working with the Partnership for A Drug Free America
and a number of state-based prevention organizations to address
prescription drug abuse. These free educational materials can be
accessed at www.painfullyobvious.com.