Prescription Drug Safety and Teens

No parent wants to think about the reality of prescription drug abuse among their kids, yet it’s a reality parents must face if they desire to protect their family. There are several steps a parent can take to help prevent abuse among their kids.

• Always keep medications in a safe place where you can monitor the inventory.
  
• Promptly and properly dispose of old or unused medications.
  
• Talk to your doctor and pharmacist about the community resources available for the education and prevention of prescription drug abuse.
  
• Spend quality time with your kids and get to know their friends and those friends’ parents.
  
• Reinforce and model responsible behaviors about medications.
  
• Be aware of your kids’ online activity—prescription drugs can be purchased over the internet from both legitimate pharmacies and illegal sites. Many of these drugs are counterfeit, but still dangerous or deadly.
  
• Talk with your teens! Keep an open dialog, and talk to your kids regularly.
  

The best things that a parent can do to prevent prescription drug abuse in their home is to foster a healthy relationship with their kids and stay alert to unusual moods and behavior. By getting to the bottom of what’s really going on with your teenager, parents can often minimize the bigger problems that may lead to a young person’s desire to abuse prescription drugs.