An NBC News report tells the story of a high school football player who went to a doctor after his fourth concussion. The doctor gave him Vicodin. The teen kept taking the pain medication for injuries but eventually became addicted and then found heroin. This is all too common a trend and, fortunately, his parents intervened, and he is now in recovery.
We face a huge crisis in this country around the use of opioids. First, I will say that for the many people who use opioids to manage their chronic pain, and do so responsibly, we should always make them available. But, here are some sobering statistics,
· Four out of five heroin users started with prescription pain medication
· 91% of the time individuals who survive an opioid overdose are prescribed opioids again.
· In 2015, more than 62 people a day died from prescription painkillers
· More people in the US now die from opioids than car crashes
With Gobi, we want to address this issue. Our vision is to build a product that will eventually deliver specific messages to kids that use prescription drugs. We think that individualized messages are very important because a boy smoking weed should get different messages than a girl drinking vodka. What we do know now is that Gobi helps kids rethink their current behaviours and that they can make changes now.
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