Concerned Citizens
There are several strategies individual citizens can employ to help address the issue of prescription drug use in their community.
Learn how youth in your community acquire illicit prescription drugs.
Many community members may wonder how people get their hands on prescription drugs when there are policies in place to restrict such access. People tend to perceive prescription medications as safe because they are legal, prescribed by physicians, and widely present in homes; therefore, many people do not recognize the risks associated with abuse and misuse. These misconceptions are widespread and are held not only by teens and young adults, but also by parents, law enforcement officers, and the public in general.
Research by The Partnership for a Drug-Free America shows that parents do not communicate the risks of abusing medications as often as they talk about illegal drugs. This is partly because some parents are unaware of the behavior-it wasn’t widespread when they were young. Like youth, adults who are aware of teen abuse of medicine tend to underestimate the risks. A recent Partnership study showed that 28% of parents have themselves taken a prescription drug without a legal prescription. This is not necessarily abuse, but it sets a dangerous example for kids – that prescriptions need not be strictly followed.
For more information about trends in prescription drug misuse, see Facts on Prescription Drug Misuse.
For more information about why young people abuse and misuse prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications, see What You Can Do - Family.
Talk to youth about the dangers of non-medical drug use.
The most important educational messages about prescription and over-the-counter drug misuse come from the home. Encourage friends and neighbors to talk to their children about non-medical use of medication. Help dispel the notion that because they are available through a doctor or at the local drug store, prescription and over-the-counter medications are safe for experimentation.
Share resources with specific facts about drugs and how teens are known to abuse them. The DEA Resource for Parents, How Teens Abuse Medicine, contains easy to understand descriptions of the five classes of drugs of abuse: narcotics, stimulants, depressants, hallucinogens, and anabolic steroids.
Encourage your schools to adopt constructive prescription and over-the-counter drug policies and prevention programs.
As a member of the community, you can work with schools in a community-wide effort to educate and reduce the availability of prescription drugs. Many schools have policies that regulate and restrict the use of over-the-counter and prescription drugs on school grounds.
If they have not already done so, school drug prevention programs must be revised to include information about abuse and misuse of prescription and over-the-counter drugs. In addition to information about the health effects of particular classes of drugs, educational messages must confront the perception by youth that they are inherently safe.
Encourage parents to learn about their responsibilities regarding safe storage and disposal of prescription and over-the-counter drugs.
As a community member or group, you can educate parents about need to reduce the availability of medications. Community awareness efforts can highlight teens say these drugs are readily available in their homes or from friends and relatives. Public awareness efforts that emphasize the safe storage of prescription medications can prevent theft and misuse. Shifts in parental attitudes towards the use of seatbelts and child car seats have created a safer driving environment. Community prevention programs can similarly shift parental attitudes towards locking medicine cabinets, monitoring drug storage, and safely disposing of unused medications.
In addition to neighborhood efforts, community members can place youth prescription and over-the-counter drug misuse and prevention strategies on the agendas of PTA, local government, faith group, service club, and other community group and organization meetings. This is another way to galvanize the community to engage with the issue.
Encourage your local newspaper, television, or radio news desk to cover the issue of prescription and over-the-counter drug abuse.
The media is an excellent resource to disseminate information about public health dangers. Encourage your local newspapers to publicize information, especially as it pertains to youth. Ask local media to publicize the efforts of law enforcement in your community, as well as the work of doctors and pharmacists who are actively engaged in anti-abuse and prevention efforts. Media attention reminds the community that abuse of medications is a serious problem that impacts youth as much, if not more, than illicit substances like marijuana.
When engaging the media, consider using these strategies:
- Write letters to the editors of your local newspapers about the dangers of abusing prescription and over-the-counter drugs.
- Offer the media local experts to address the issue.
- To foster a "human interest" perspective, help the media contact families who have experienced the effects of prescription drug abuse
- To complete the picture, be prepared to provide fact sheets and visuals such as photos, charts, and video footage.
- Create and disseminate public service announcements that spotlight the problem and community efforts.
- Ask local schools to sponsor a public service announcement competition where students create the information pieces.
Ask health care providers in the community to discuss and screen for prescription drug misuse during children’s annual physical exams.
Specific members of the community, such as health care providers and school staff, are in a position to recognize signs of prescription drug misuse. Doctors can be asked to regularly screen for prescription drug abuse and offer brief interventions to youth. Encourage all health care providers who work with youth to integrate discussions about the hazards of misusing prescription and over-the-counter drugs into annual physicals.