Prescription Drug Summit Emotional For Surviving Parents, Even Tulsa's Mayor

Tulsa mayor Dewey Bartlett broke down in tears at a Public Safety summit focused on prescription drug abuse.

Bartlett said Tulsa County is number one in Oklahoma for prescription overdoses.

Health officials and the mayor say the first step is education.

Tulsans must realize being addicted to prescriptions can be just as deadly as abusing illegal drugs.

“When we talk about prescriptions we are talking about painkillers, oxycodone, hydrocodone, vicodin, those type of medications,” Oklahoma Department of Mental Health's Teri White said.

They can be both highly addictive and deadly, experts say.

To drive that point, home organizers of the prescription drug abuse summit used powerful video testimonies from doctors, fathers and mothers like Gail Box.

"We have got to dispose of them appropriately because there are people out there looking for those prescription drugs,” Box said.

It is a reality she knows all too well. Her son Austin overdosed in 2011.

He was a linebacker for OU with a promising future. His story is proof the problem is widespread.

"We have the 18th highest rate of death of all counties in the US right here in Tulsa, in the community that we live in and need to address,” White said.

Now Box works with politicians to educate people about what they can do stop the epidemic.

"If you have any type of feeling or concern that there might be something anything going on in your child's life then ask it, even if you think it's a hard question,” she said. “Ask it."

“The exciting thing is -prescription drug abuse is preventable. Prescription drug abuse is treatable,” White said.

The issue also is emotional. Mayor Dewey Bartlett cried at the podium. He says he knows far too many families who have lost loved ones to prescription drug addiction.

"It's very emotional because it deals with families, and family is the basis and fabric of our society,” Bartlett said. “And if we let it go by and let this attack on our family go by, then our society suffers our community suffers."

You can help by taking your unused pills to one of the three drug take-back locations Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

• 71st and Sheridan - Reasor's parking lot - 7114 S. Sheridan Rd
• 41st and Yale - Reasor's parking lot - 4909 E. 41st St.
• Pine and Lewis - Save-A-Lot's parking lot - 1526 N. Lewis Ave.