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Start Talking!
Know! To
Safeguard Your Home for the Holidays
12/8/2016
You happily agreed to host this year’s holiday gathering. You have the
house beautifully decorated, the dinner table is set, and your many
guests are arriving. You have everything in place and your celebration
appears to be nicely unfolding, as planned.
But what about the young lady who just disappeared into the upstairs
bathroom, where you keep your prescription medications? She now has
full access to your prescriptions stored in the medicine cabinet. That
wasn’t part of the plan.
Should you be concerned? Yes. Here’s why: Prescription meds now rank in
the top three most popular drugs of choice among youth, just after
marijuana and alcohol. Statistics reveal that ONE in FOUR teens have
misused or abused prescription drugs. 70 percent of those teens say
they obtained their drugs from a friend or relative.
Is there something you can do to prevent this from actually happening
in your home? Yes.
Whether it’s the holiday season or any other time of the year, you can
automatically limit access and availability of prescription medications
in your home (for youth and adults) by taking certain precautions and
encouraging your family and friends to do the same.
SECURE: All medications should be safely stored in a lock box,
including those that require refrigeration.
MONITOR: It is important to know what’s inside that lock box and to
regularly monitor its contents. Take extra care if you store any type
of prescription pain medication, as these are the most highly abused
drugs.
DISPOSE: Properly disposing of your unused or expired medication is
another key to preventing prescription drug abuse. When available,
local drug take-back programs are the ideal method to safely dispose of
medications.
As you prepare for the holiday season, be sure to include safeguarding
your medications as part of the plan. SECURE, MONITOR and properly
DISPOSE to limit access and availability in your home and to protect
your family and friends.
Learn how to get the conversation started at
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