During math classes on November 9, an assembly was held in the auditorium on the dangers of opioid use.

   According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, “opioids are medications that relieve pain. They reduce the intensity of pain signals reaching the brain and affect those brain areas controlling emotion, which diminishes the effects of a painful stimulus.”

   The assembly’s guest speakers included a Maryland assistant state’s attorney, a father who lost his son to heroin and other opioid-related drugs, an ex-heroin dealer and a police lieutenant. The main message these individuals were trying to convey to students was that opioids and other drugs are addictive and taking them even once can, in some cases, kill you.

“The number of deaths in Maryland related to heroin and opioid drug dependency has increased by more than 100 percent in the last five years. In some regions of the state, an estimated one in ten citizens are addicted to heroin,” according to the Maryland’s Heroin and Opioid Emergency Task Force website.

   The guest speakers not only focused on the importance of not taking opioids and drugs in general, but they also wanted students to be aware of the Good Samaritan Law.

   According to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, “The Maryland Good Samaritan Law, effective October 1, 2015, provides protection from arrest as well as prosecution for certain specific crimes and expands the charges from which people assisting in an emergency overdose situation are immune.”

   The guest speakers wanted students to be aware that if anyone overdoses on drugs, they need to be helped, not ignored, which many overdosed individuals are because people are too scared of possibly being arrested themselves because they may have taken drugs as well or were drinking recently.

   “Our goal is not to prosecute more people,” Maryland assistant state’s attorney Steve Chaikin said. “Our goal is to save lives.”

  Many students agree with the guest speakers and found the assembly to be extremely informative and took each and every word about the dangers of opioids to heart.

   “The guest speakers were really fun and really got the students, including myself, interested and informed about the dangers of opioid use,” Senior Chris Carlyle said.

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