A 19-year-old had been making music all evening, enjoying a great time with his best friend. He didn’t feel depressed or sad; he loved life and experienced it full-out, with all the vitality and exuberance of youth. After he reached for his pain medication that night, he fell softly asleep. The next day, his family found him dead.

“Accidental poisonings can have a devastating effect on families, and that death hurt my family.  He was my son’s best friend,” said Marjorie Vestal, public health educator and coordinator of Project Lazarus. “I knew then I wanted to make a difference.”

Drug overdose rates have more than doubled between 1999 and 2007, and in North Carolina, the death rate from unintentional poisoning has reached epidemic proportions, she said. Deaths by drug overdose almost equal the number of deaths by automobile accidents in this state.

Project Lazarus aims to help raise awareness, prevent these deaths, and intervene to stop this trend. Vestal will do presentations to any community group on how to prevent or respond to this problem.

“Sometimes people take too much of their prescribed medications,” she said. “It might be accidental, or they might figure that if one pill helps, three pills will help more. Many times, people are prescribed medications and they may not understand how to take them.”

Illegal prescription drug use also can result in these accidental poisonings, she said.

Project Lazarus has reduced unintentional overdose deaths in Wilkes County by 69 percent. A $2.6 million grant supports Community Care of North Carolina in taking this method statewide, with community-based coalitions, clinical process for treating chronic pain, and measurement of program outcome goals. The first step will be raising awareness so people understand the dangers.

“People will go to the doctor in one town and get a prescription filled, and then go to another doctor and get more for the same thing,” she said. “Sometimes, too, parents will take their children’s medications, such as Adderall or Ritalin, and people buy and sell pain and anxiety medications. They don’t mean to die or to kill anyone; it’s an accidental poisoning caused by misuse of the drug.”

Lazarus Project teaches prevention with relatively simple measures that can help save lives. People taking prescription drugs should lock up their medications, keep them stored in original containers and never share them with anyone else. Vestal uses the website at www.safeguardmymeds.org to offer basics on these preventative measures.

“Arrests for DWI (driving while intoxicated) often involve prescription drugs,” Vestal said. “Alcohol can be detected by Breathalyzer, and marijuana can be detected by scent, but not prescription drugs.”

Vestal plans to catalyze a band of community partners in law enforcement, schools, health organizations and faith-based organizations to work  toward reducing unintentional poisonings, with a roll out meeting in January.

Anyone interested in helping, may reach her at the Polk County Health Department at 828-894-8271, ext. 222. Vestal’s email is mvestal@rpmhd.org.

“We can do so much,” Vestal said. “We can have medicine take-backs with the sheriff’s department, education on proper disposal of unused meds, and flyers for pharmacists. I really plan to broaden awareness of the extent of this problem.”