Are parents making it easy for their children to abuse medications? Nearly 70 percent of teens who use medications that were not prescribed for them get them from family or friends.
Although parents of young children may be cautious about keeping medications out of reach, most parents of adolescents are casual about where they put their medications, leaving them in their bedside drawer, in a purse, in the bathroom medicine cabinet, on the counter, or in an unlocked kitchen cupboard. The easy availability of medications increases the risk of their abuse. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, medication abuse has become a national epidemic.
SAFE Inc., a substance abuse prevention coalition in Chesterfield County, has launched Lock Your Meds, a two-month public awareness campaign addressing the problem of medication accessibility. The media campaign, in partnership with the Virginia Department of Health, focuses on the importance of storing medications in locked containers or cabinets, particularly medications with abuse potential such as prescription pain pills, sleeping pills, anxiety medications, anti-depressants, and stimulants (used in treating ADHD).
SAFE recently surveyed more than 100 Chesterfield County parents and found that nearly all have prescription or over-the-counter medications in their homes, but only one in four keeps them in a secure location.
According to Wayne Frith, executive director of SAFE, “The Lock Your Meds campaign encourages parents to secure their medications in a locked container or cabinet. We also stress the importance of parents talking to their children about using medicines only as directed and the dangers of misuse.”
Visit chesterfieldsafe.org for more information.
SAFE’s mission is to engage the community in preventing and reducing substance abuse.
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Contacts: Wayne Frith at 804-516-1655, frith@chesterfieldsafe.org, or Sharyl Adams at 804-751-4960, adamss@chesterfield.gov.
