 Around 50% of high school seniors said that pain killers would be fairly or very easy to get. (Monitoring the Future Survey, 2012)
The Office of National Drug Control Policy named prescription drug abuse as “the nation’s fastest growing drug problem.”
Alcohol & Drug Services and The Cone Health Foundation have teamed up to Flip the Script (FTS) on medicine misuse among teens. FTS is an initiative that educates, empowers, and engages the community to reduce the impact of prescription and over the counter drug misuse among teens. Using a comprehensive approach, FTS is actively committed to:
- Public awareness: Empower the community to provide clear, consistent prevention messages to teens by giving them reliable information and easy, effective strategies for action
- Reduce access and availability: To reinforce safe prescribing policies, reduce diversion, and encourage everyone to monitor, secure, and dispose of medicines safely
- Education: To build skills and knowledge that support healthy choices
- Build Capacity: To increase efforts and resources that address teen medicine abuse in Guilford County
FTS provides trainings, information, and resources throughout Guilford County on issues surrounding prescription and over the counter drug misuse. Presentations are available to teens, parents, grandparents, medical and human service professionals and community.
Our message is clear:
MOST TEENS DON’T USE
- Most teens use medicines safely by following the directions
- Youth that misuse medicine are at risk for accidents, overdose, and addiction
- Taking medicine to get high is not safer than abusing street drugs.
MONITOR, SECURE AND DISPOSE MEDICINES SAFELY
- It’s never okay to share prescription drugs, regardless of the reason.
- Prescription medications and over the counter medicines have a place and can benefit us when used by the right person, at the right dose, in the right way
- Don’t share prescriptions. Monitor, secure & dispose of your medicines safely.
Monitor:
- Keep a list of all medicines in your home
- Count your pills – inventory all medicines at least twice a year
- Track refills
Secure:
- Gather medicines from counters, drawers, and purses
- Lock up medicines especially those that can be abused
- Store them out of reach & sight
- Use the alarm on your cell or a note on the fridge to remind you to take medicines
Dispose:
- Clean out your medicine cabinet often
- Take old, unused medicines to a permanent drop boxDrop them off at a take back event
- At home: Dissolve pills in water first.
- Then pour liquid medicines and/or water mixture into a bag of kitty litter, charcoal, or other gross material.
- Hide in your regular trash.Only a few medicines can be flushed
As a community, we influence teen attitudes and decisions around medicine use. How we treat medicines in our homes could influence whether someone you know becomes one of the 2,500 youth who start experimenting with prescription and over the counter drugs today.
For more information:
For more information or to schedule a program, contact: preventionservices@adsyes.org
|
