UCO Roll Sober educates: prevent addiction and overdose

Titus Leong

Contributing Writer

The University of Central Oklahoma’s Roll Sober initiative aims to increase awareness and education concerning substance abuse as well as providing students with resources and means of prevention.

Angel Stine is the coordinator of Roll Sober, which operates under the Office of Health Promotion. The initiative focuses on substance abuse and suicide prevention on campus. Stine aims to ramp up Narcan training and accessibility across campus, so students have access to these resources when needed.

“The concern was the rise in opioid and stimulant misuse and overdoses within the college campus communities,” Stine said. “There have been huge spikes since Covid.”

In the Spring 2023 semester, a health self-assessment was handed out to students enrolled in the Healthy Life Skills class. Results reported 7.1% of students having misused prescription opioids, and 8.8% of students misused prescription stimulants, which is nearly double the national average taken from the National College Health Assessment data which reported 3.1% and 4.1% misuse nationally.

“The aim is to prevent any accidents, or potentially concerning things that might happen,” Stine said. “You know, just trying to give people the tools they need so that they can feel safe.”
Roll Sober receives funding from the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse. Stine said that they have resources to provide to UCO students and offer them with any methods of assistance.

Students can attend Narcan training held monthly across campus, so they know how to administer Narcan to a victim of opioid overdose at a moment’s notice. Those who attend such training sessions will also receive a microcredential.

“It’s a community effort now, because we never know when it’s going to happen,” said Stine, “It could even be cases where maybe if somebody in your house may have accidentally taken too much of a pain medication or something like that. You just never know and it’s always good to be safe.”

There was a Mario Kart event on campus last semester to spread awareness for substance abuse. Students wore a pair of VR goggles that simulate the differences with driving under the influence and not.

The next Narcan training on campus will be held at 1 p.m. Feb. 26 in the Education Building.