Citizens Rally At State Capitol Against Prescription Drug Abuse

The mother of former OU football player Austin Box and others joined at the state Capitol today to launch a campaign to bring awareness to prescription drug abuse.

Gail Box spoke to the crowd about the Coalition Against Rx Drug Epidemic (CARE).

Austin Box died in 2011.

His autopsy showed he had five prescription painkillers and an anti-anxiety drug in his system when he died.

The state health department says drug overdoses increased by nearly 400 percent from 1999 to 2013.

Coalition members say enough is enough.

"These prescription drugs are just as harmful as any other drug and these are something you find in everybody's homes. So please, make a difference, put those up, lock them up, store them, dispose of them properly," said Jeanette Cosby, of CARE. 

Oklahoma currently has the sixth-highest unintentional drug overdose death rate in the U.S.