Photo Credits: Emily Tyler
Pictured: Dr. Russell Jones (stage left) and Attorney General Tim Griffin (stage right)
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin brought his One Pill Can Kill initiative to Arkansas Tech University on Monday, Nov. 17, as part of a statewide effort to increase fentanyl awareness among college students.
The events are funded through opioid settlement money, a pool of funds Arkansas received from lawsuits against drug manufacturers and distributors accused of fueling the opioid crisis.
The opioid epidemic began with the widespread overprescription of painkillers in the early 2000s and has evolved into a deadly surge of illicit drugs, many of them laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid powerful enough that even tiny amounts can be fatal.
The state began rolling out prevention and education programs with those dollars in 2023.
“I was faced with the responsibility of taking the opioid settlement money and using it to reduce opioid deaths,” Griffin said. “We do that by raising awareness, teaching people about prevention but also how to deal with it through treatment and recovery.”
Griffin’s office is taking the One Pill Can Kill program to every college campus in Arkansas, offering training on recognizing the signs of an overdose, administering Narcan and finding help for someone in crisis. That event was held on Monday evening where 277 ATU students attended.
During Monday’s press conference, he also announced that a Narcan vending machine will be installed on the ATU campus, giving students free access to the overdose-reversing medication.
“Look, there’s no second chance with a lot of this; it’s literally one pill can kill, and people or young people, in particular, are going to parties where the pills are offered to them,” he said.
Griffin noted that the effort is meant to build long-term awareness. The ATU stop marked another step in a broader push to keep students informed as fentanyl continues to impact communities across the state and in hopes that the overall number of overdoses in Arkansas will decrease.
