MUSCLE SHOALS (AP) — For Chris and Julie Letsinger, the difficulty of reliving the death of their son is eased only in knowing that telling Landon’s story could save the lives of other teens.

So on July 14, the Letsingers filmed a video with Barry Matson, deputy director of the Office of Prosecution Services in Montgomery.

Matson, who is also chairman of the Alabama Drug Abuse Task Force, is joining forces with the state Department of Public Health and the District Attorney’s Association to get a drug prevention program in place. One of the first efforts of that partnership is a series of videos on various drugs.

According to Matson, the state’s greatest problems are synthetic drugs, prescription drug abuse, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana use.

Each of those drug categories, along with several others, will be part of the drug prevention video series to be shown in Alabama schools, beginning next spring.

Matson said the idea behind the videos is to assure no student watching them will ever be able to say, “I didn’t know this could happen.”

The Letsingers shared their story of 17-year-old Landon, a rising senior whose June 2013 death was the result of a first-time use of a synthetic drug.

The man who gave him the drug, Ryan Wilkes, was charged in Letsinger’s death, and was given a 10-year split sentence in 2015.

Chris Letsinger said it’s important for teens to understand Landon took the drug once, and paid for it with his life. Likewise, it changed the life of the person who provided the drug.

“That person will carry the consequences of that night always, and he’ll be a convicted felon for the rest of his life,” he said.

During filming of the video, the Letsingers occasionally were overcome with emotion as they spoke of Landon and the dreams he, and they, had for his future.

“He loved soccer and was looking forward to his senior year, and perhaps playing soccer in college,” Julie Letsinger said. “He loved life. That was something everyone knew about Landon. There was never a dull moment when he was around.”

Matson said the video series will be unique in that “it isn’t just Big Brother saying don’t do drugs.”

He said the approach to the videos is modern, and the information students will get is straight from the sources — medical and legal professionals and families of teens like Landon who lost their lives as a result of drug use.

The videos will also be available next year through various forms of social media. He said he wants access to the project to be widely available because education is the key to eradication.

“People’s heads are in the sand about these drugs and how rampant they are,” Matson said. “Addiction is the number one problem in Alabama, and nearly every other problem stems from it. It’s a crippling issue, and it has a grip on this state. We don’t do a good job of prevention and education. That’s got to change.”

During one especially poignant moment during filming, Chris Letsinger shared his feelings of regret, saying he wish he’d done more to prevent his son’s death.

“Looking back on that day, we question what we could have done differently,” he said. “We did everything we knew to do, but we didn’t know all the people who were pursuing him and contacting him. I would urge parents to know as much as possible about what their kids are doing, who they’re seeing and talking to. It only takes that one person getting through and everything changes.”

Julie Letsinger said the couple’s goal in participating in the video is to make parents aware of the drugs their kids are tempted with.

“We want to reach kids and let them know that, yes, it really can happen to them,” she said.