TULSA-- Six years ago, Michelle Evans lost her brother after he overdosed on Oxycontin.
"He broke his leg in a soccer injury in high school and he just had so many surgeries on and off and it just eventually led to addiction," Said Former Mrs. America Michelle Evans.
Evans believes his death could have been prevented.
Michelle Evans Former Mrs. America, 5-02-5-12 "He was definitely over prescribed and it just was devastating thing to watch."
In 2015, 164 people in Tulsa County died from overdose. Health officials said 60 percent of those deaths were from Opioid overdose. They said it's easy to get the dangerously addictive narcotics.
"Take a pain killer once, feel a little better then eventually you build a tolerance to it and then you take a little more and you're accidentally addicted which can lead to accidental overdose as well," said SPFPFS Specialist Stephanie Tillman.
They said first responders now use Naloxone nasal spray to reverse the effects of overdose. The state is also using a drug database to log every time someone is prescribed drugs.
"We encourage doctors to use the PMP, prescription monitoring program and check that and that will help eliminate those drug seekers," said Tillman.
Since becoming Mrs. America 2015, Evans is making it her mission to educate others about the overdose epidemic and to help save other families from losing their loved ones.
"If people look at this addiction and prescription drug abuse for what it is, a disease. And make further steps with prescribing better then we can definitely help to improve the epidemic going on." said Evans.
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