Student-Inspired PSA Prescribes Social Norm Change

For a team of Washington state high school students, spending two months to produce a 33-second public service announcement was well worth the time it could take to save a fellow young person's life.

Tacoma’s veteran Safe Streets Campaign’s youth coalition, Youth Leading Change, knew everyone is affected by prescription drug abuse, especially their classmates, so they decided to create a unique PSA to educate others about the topic and an accompanying promotional project to distribute fact-filled prescription bottles while wearing a doctor’s style white coat. The project won the youth coalition the grand prize award at their statewide drug prevention summit held recently and got the attention of other students.

“I had friends who told me it was an eye-opener,” said 15-year-old Gracie Eichner, a freshman at Stadium High School. All the students are from that school and defeated 40 other youth groups with their “The Doctor is In” project. The annual summit was sponsored by Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna’s office.

Gracie will join her team members Anthony Wood, Jarquiz Walker, Emily Peterson, Tiffany Ewell, Sarah Cuddeback, and Andrew Johnson on scholarship at CADCA’s National Leadership Forum near Washington, DC next winter as an additional prize for their work, said advisor Kristen McClintock, a mobilization specialist with the Youth Leading Change coalition.

“When it was shown, everyone’s jaws dropped,” said Youth Leading Change program manager Mike Wilson. Statewide data has revealed that prescription drugs are easier for a youth to get than beer.

“Our goal is to impact as many people as we can with this PSA,” recent graduate Anthony Wood, 18, said. “We all know family and other students who are affected by this.”

As he prepares to start classes at Eastern Washington University, never himself having an addiction, Anthony said his own mother and brother are former prescription drug abusers.

They conclude their PSA with “Prescription Drugs: Meant to Help, not Hurt.”

The PSA was shown in all Stadium High School classrooms and is airing on Click! Cable TV now and in September just in time for back-to-school. You can also view their PSA on You Tube.