[October 11, 2017]

Count It! Lock It! Drop It!™, Miss Tennessee Partner to Fight Opioid Epidemic

Count It! Lock It! Drop It! ^TM (CLD) and Miss Tennessee 2017 Caty Davis have partnered to help combat the state's opioid epidemic. Davis will serve as the first goodwill ambassador for the comprehensive community program for prescription drug abuse prevention.

"We couldn't have asked to have a better person to serve as our first goodwill ambassador," said Kristina Clark, CLD project manager. "Caty's personal experiences with family members' battling addiction and her passion for this cause will be great assets for CLD as we work to combat the misuse of prescription pain medication."

As Miss Tennessee, Davis travels all over the state speaking about her experiences with addiction and also as Gov. Bill Haslam's Official Spokesperson for Character Education. Her platform, Attacking Addiction, seeks to educate people about addiction and reduce the stigma associated with addiction.

An East Tennessee native, Davis was crowned Miss Tennessee in June 2017. She traveled to Atlantic Cit, N.J., this September to represent Tennessee in the Miss America Pageant, where she placed in the top 12 in the nation. Davis, a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, is honored to serve as a role model and mentor to students across Tennessee.

"Even though addiction has taken three generations of my family, the cycle has ended with me," Davis said. "As the daughter of an addict who lost his life due to addiction, I am thrilled to serve as CLD's goodwill ambassador and raise awareness of this incredible program."

Davis' family has been plagued by multigenerational addiction to alcohol and opioids, and she has 12 family members who have battled or are currently struggling with addiction. She witnessed firsthand how addiction can destroy families. Both her father and half-brother took their own lives as a result of their addiction to opioids.

Based on her experiences growing up in a household with drug abuse, Davis personally understands the importance of CLD's three simple steps that anyone can practice to keep their medications out of the wrong hands:

• Count pills every two weeks to monitor theft and help ensure medications are taken properly;
• Lock and store medications in a secure place where others would not think to look; and
• Dispose of unused or expired medications at drop boxes or during take-back events.

About CLD

Count It! Lock It! Drop It!^TM (CLD) is a comprehensive community program for prescription drug misuse prevention based in Coffee County, Tenn. With support from the BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Health Foundation, an independent licensee of the BlueCross and BlueShield Association, and the community at large, the program is leading a statewide education effort to combat the misuse and abuse of prescription pain medication. According to the Tennessee Department of Health, more than 7.6 million opioid prescriptions were written in 2016, and at least 1,631 Tennesseans died from drug overdoses. It is CLD's mission to make the community aware of the risks and dangers associated with the prescription drug misuse epidemic.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171011006174/en/

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