Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway spoke to a group of freshmen at Bell County High School Tuesday afternoon. This is part of a campaign his office started in recent years to target students across the state.

Freshman students at Bell County High School heard the story of Mike Donta.

"My son was an abuser of prescription drugs. He struggled for years, and he struggled often, and he took his own life," said Donta.

This was all part of a message to get them to stay away from prescription pills.

"We're losing an entire generation of kids to this problem. We need to get into high schools and educate kids as to how problematic this is," said Jack Conway, Kentucky Attorney General.

Conway points to alarming statistics.
Operation UNITE officials report that each day three people in Kentucky die of prescription drug overdoses.

"I didn't think it would be that way, but that's a lot," said Caitlin Zachary, "I'll remember it for a while."

Zachary said leaders got their point across.

"A group of ninth graders is important to talk to because we want to get at the next generation of Kentuckians," said Conway.

Their hope is that these students will take this message with them.

"They need to realize this is not a distant thing. It's in their home. It's in their community. It hits them right at home," said Donta.

Conway will be in Floyd County Friday afternoon speaking with another group of students.