Seniors Can Help Anti-Drug efforts

A news item out of Jackson County, W.Va, is worth spreading around.  Anti-Drug Coalition Turns to Seniors for Help

Apparently prescription drug abuse is a problem that just isn’t going away.  About 20 percent of Americans have admitted to using prescription drugs for non-medical purposes, at some point in their lives.  Seniors can fall victim to drug prescription theft.

Prescription abuse is very high among teens in Jackson County, and after yesterday’s meeting Youdoris Faber of Ripley has a better idea of where teens are getting the drugs from. “I’ve been wondering where these children get these pills, and I didn’t know it was from their grandparents or their aunts or uncles or somebody like that,” Faber said.

Today they are getting advice to “lock them up” with hopes of keeping prescription medications out of teen’s hands.  “Anybody is very vulnerable if they need to be money to go in and take a drug out of your medicine cabinet and then go to school and make money and you don’t even know your pill is missing,” Pharmacy Student Sarah Stotler said.

Studies show that teenagers abuse prescription drugs more than other illegal drugs because they see them as safer- but the Anti-Drug Coalition in Jackson County hopes that the elders in their community can change that.

This message on one way of preventing more prescription drugs ending up in teenagers’ hands deserves the widest audience possible.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Kids, Drug Abuse, and the Medicine Cabinet (drug-abuse.suite101.com)
• Prescription drug abuse (yourerdoc.com)