More than 1,000 people in North Carolina die from prescription drug overdoses each yeah, according to a 2013 report from the North Carolina Division of Public Health.

In an effort to raise awareness about this prescription drug abuse, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper made stops across the Tar Heel state to kick off the state’s Stop Rx Abuse Video Contest.

Roy Cooper speaking to students at Woods Charter School. Photo via Blake Hodge.

Roy Cooper speaking to students at Woods Charter School. Photo via Blake Hodge.

On Wednesday, Cooper was at Woods Charter School in Chatham County.

Cooper said they have expanded the annual contest to the middle school level because law enforcement continues to see younger individuals impacted by prescription drug abuse.

“Many of these kids are opioid naive and it can be one or two pills that can just knock them out,” Cooper said after speaking to the students. “If you add a beer or two to that, it can be significant and these kids just stop breathing.”

This is the fifth annual video contest and the second year it has included middle school students.

To enter, middle and high school students can create a 30-second public service announcement video on teen prescription drug abuse.

Below is the winning video from last year’s high school entries:

Cooper said that it can be hard to get a message to resonate with teenagers, specifically when the message is coming from an adult, which is why the video contest was created.

“As a way to get the young people to find out the facts for themselves and begin talking about the problem with themselves,” Cooper said, “and then trying to convince each other through these ad’s.

“It’s not the ad’s as much as it is the process of making them. Because we’ve seen so many dynamics with the young people as they find out all of this information.”

Cooper said, while this particular campaign is aimed at getting teenagers involved in the conversation, there are other factors at play. Cooper said that the number of pills in a prescription can be a contributing factor after a teenager has their wisdom teeth removed or a similar procedure.

“Often times [the prescription is] 40 pills,” Cooper said. “And they may take one or two. And then you’ve got a bottle of 38 pills left in the house that is a real resource for kids who want to start using them recreationally.

“We’re working with doctors too to try to get the prescription numbers reduced.”

Cooper said there is policy that could be enacted to help fight against the prescription abuse issue, including expanding Medicaid in North Carolina.

“We could cover hundreds of thousands of more people if [state leadership] accept this 100 percent federal Medicaid expansion,” Cooper said. “That’s one thing. We also have seen continued cutbacks in mental health substance abuse treatment.

“We’ve seen an elimination of drug courts in our state, which had been a very positive tool that you could use to hold incarceration over somebody to force them into addiction and substance abuse treatment.”

Stop Rx Abuse. Photo via DOJ.

Stop Rx Abuse. Photo via DOJ.

The entry deadline for 30-second videos to be submitted by middle and high school students is April 18.

More information on the video contest can be found here.