Parents know it’s important to have the “big discussions” in life with their children on many issues – including drugs. While drug discussions often involvethe dangers of illegal drugs and addiction, many stop short of including the dangers posed by unused prescription drugs so often found in our medicine cabinets. With so many communities across the country grappling with the pain of youth addiction and the daily national tragedies of opioid overdoses, how can parents work together with school systems and community groups to educate children on removing these dangers?
The parents of LaGrange, Georgia and the Troup County School System in that state are setting a great example.
November is National Parent Engagement Month, an effort to recognize the contributions of parents across the nation and to encourage schools to raise awareness of the important role parents play in a child’s education. But leading up to this month, LaGrange County parents began organizing monthly meetings with school administrators covering a wide-array of topics. Last month, the parents brought in Shannon Lawson from the Troup County Prevention Coalition (TCPC) to learn more about what parents can do to safeguard their families from drug and alcohol abuse.
You can read about how the TCPC is working to help eliminate excess medications in their fight against drug abuse here: https://www.lagrangenews.com/2018/10/03/tcpc-promotes-new-way-to-dispose-of-medicine/
Among the topics Shannon shared with parents were the dangers posed by leftover opioids and other prescription drugs found in many home medicine cabinets and why effectively disposing of these “ticking time-bombs” is so important. Shannon was able to distribute packets of DisposeRx, the leading site-of-use drug disposal product for the immediate removal of unused prescription medications.The TCPC is distributing DisposeRx packets through the largess of the AmerisourceBergen Foundation’s Safe Disposal Support Program, with whom we share a commitment to clean out America’s medicine cabinets – the source of 70% of new addictions — of unused, unwanted and expired medications. Children understand right away that they can not be hurt by pills that simply aren’t there anymore. Cleaning out the home medicine cabinet is a gift that every parent can give their child – no pills to begin a potential addiction, no accidental poisoning, no mistaken combinations with other medications.
The goal, as stated by DisposeRx CEO Dr. John Holaday is “to change the course of the opioid epidemic by reshaping the culture and habits of prescription medication disposal. Leftover medications are potentially fatal time bombs that must be destroyed the moment they are no longer being used.”
Does your community have a program to clean out home medicine cabinets or does it want to start one? DisposeRx is working with charitable organizations, faith-¬based groups and foundations to donate enough of our abuse-¬deterrent packets to destroy 10 million opioid tablets in home medicine cabinets across the nation. If you represent a 501(c)(3) organization and are interested in applying for a donation of DisposeRx packets, please complete and submit the Packet Donation Application Form and a DisposeRx representative will reach out to you within 5 business days.
