By Maeve Rourke (Sports Editor) and Nisali Fernando (Entertainment Editor)

Ryan Phillips graduated from Jonathan Law in 2006. He spent his spare time working on cars, playing sports, and spending time with family and his friends. Ryan’s father, Bill Phillips, speaks highly of his son, the pride in his voice is indistinguishable.

Recently, Mr. Phillips took from a beaten manila folder two things. One was a crisp copy of his sons high school diploma. His voice breaking he said, “I want you to work hard in life, and receive this (a diploma) and work hard not to end up with your name on one of these (a grave marker).”

Mr. Philips was one of panelists who spoke at the Opiate Awareness Presentation at Jonathan Law on Friday, September 23. The presentation coincided with Opiate Awareness Week.

There were also many important officials at the assembly which was organized by Law Health and Substance Abuse teacher Mr. Sweeney. Senator Chris Murphy, U.S. Attorney Deirdre Daly, Assistant U.S. Attorney Rob Spector, and DEA Special Agent Dana Mofenson were all in attendance.

“I wanted to be proactive about this. None of the teachers here think there is an opioid issue, so this was a preventative measure of what could happen,” Sweeney said. “And I feel this presentation echoed and reaffirmed what I try to teach in class. I am very pleased with the results.”

An informational movie, “Chasing the Dragon,” was shown first at the assembly. It consisted of real stories from people that got arrested and were involved with opiates.

“During the presentation I felt an overwhelming amount of students were engaged and they  seemed to be interested in the material that was presented, especially the guest speakers,” Sweeney said. “This week in class when I asked about the assembly most of the students felt it was a very good presentation.”

Over 46,000 people die from drug overdose year and the government is working tirelessly to decrease the number of drug abusers in the United States.

Senator Murphy took time to address high school students who had pressing questions about this growing issue. Murphy spoke about current legislation in Congress surrounding the opiate abuse.

“We need more funding for addiction treatment, but we haven’t won that battle yet,” Murphy said. “We passed a new law that establishes a lot of new programming for addiction, but there’s really no money behind it. The law is called the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) but we need to pass some more funding for it.”

Also, police departments from around the nation are teaming up to reduce the deaths due to drug overdoses.

“We try to identify the supplier, the distributor, and work up the chain and get the lethal drugs off the street,” U.S Attorney Deirdre Daly said. “Particularly the pentenoyl which is the most dangerous. But the reality is that there are always going to be people that are selling drugs and we cannot stop that.”

By speaking at high schools they’re attempting to solve the problem before it starts. Government officials and lawmakers are reaching out to students and telling them the real cost of opiate abuse.

“It is important to have these presentations in high schools because the average addict is getting younger and younger,” Murphy said. “Maybe it hasn’t happened here at Jonathan Law but at a lot of high schools’ drug of choice is no longer alcohol or marijuana, it’s prescription pain medication so we’ve got to do a better job of educating kids on how your life can be ruined virtually over night if you abuse these drugs.”

The speakers have provided many ways in which students can help fight against drug abuse in their own homes and communities.

“As students, you have to be responsible for not only yourself, but your friends and classmates as well,” DEA Agent Dana Mofenson said. “By educating yourself and each other, you’re taking important steps to protect yourselves.”

The video revealed that 80% of people that use prescription opioid are not the person that was prescribed the medication, and for many students the revelation was eye-opening.

“I thought the presentation was really amazing,” senior Jillian Bendlak said. “The video gave me a broad view of how bad prescription drugs can actually be, most people don’t understand or know how addicting they can be. This video portrayed this information in a personal, and even sad, way.”

After the presentation subsided, Mr. Phillips looked hopefully at the students surrounding him. Still clutching his wrinkled manila folder. Mr. Phillip’s story about his son shook everyone in the audience, many who were laughing and wincing during the video finally realized the severity of the issue.

“The boy (Ryan Phillips) went to law, he came from our school,” Bendlak said. “He went down the wrong path and unfortunately passed away, it shows how this can happen to any one of us.”