Take Action
Teens who learn a lot about the risks of drugs from their parents are 50 percent less likely to use drugs.
Although it may not always seem obvious, parents are the most powerful voice in their teens’ lives, especially concerning attitudes toward substance abuse.
As the makers of cough medicines and parents ourselves, we are working with the nation’s top experts—such as The Partnership at Drugfree.org, D.A.R.E. America, and the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America—to make sure parents across the country understand teen medicine abuse and its dangers.
Join our efforts and prevent cough medicine abuse in your own homes and communities. See how parents, teachers and school administrators, retailers, healthcare professionals, and law enforcement officers can help.
Take Action in Your Community
Are you involved in your community? Are you active in your kids’ schools, your religious community, or sports events? Do you share information with your family and friends online? If so, you can help prevent medicine abuse in your community. It’s easy to make a difference.
- E-mail five friends about medicine abuse by using our tell-a-friend tool available in both English and Spanish.
- Host a town hall meeting to share information about this teen substance abuse behavior with other parents and adult influencers.
- Order free educational brochures for parents and distribute them at your child’s next sports event or at your next school meeting.
- Submit an opinion piece to your local paper to raise awareness in your community about cough medicine abuse.
- Learn about the program developed by the Save Our Kids Coalition, Bowling Green, Kentucky, the recipient of the 2009 CADCA/CHPA Dose of Prevention Award for their outstanding work in raising awareness of teen cough medicine abuse in their own community.
There are many ways to help. Here are some others:
Parents:
- Order free copies of the educational brochure, Preventing Teen Cough Medicine Abuse, for parents to distribute the next time you know you’ll be in a social situation with other concerned parents.
- The next time your child has a doctor’s appointment, bring in a few fact sheets for the physician and the other doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, etc., at the practice.
- Print out this page the next time you have a scheduled meeting with a teacher or anyone from your child’s school.
- Send an e-mail to your friends and neighbors using the StopMedicineAbuse.org tell-a-friend tool, available in both English and Spanish.
- Join other concerned parents by signing up for the StopMedicineAbuse.org e-newsletter.
- Visit DXMstories.com with your teen and go through the real-life stories of teens who have abused cough medicine and learn the true dangers of abuse.
- Download the brochure, Preventing Teen Medicine Abuse from Home to Homeroom, a publication from StopMedicineAbuse.org and the National Association of School Nurses.
Teachers and school administrators:
- Be sure to distribute this fact sheet to all the teachers at your school or in your district.
- Order copies of the free informational brochure, Preventing Teen Cough Medicine Abuse, to include in your back-to-school information to parents or with report cards.
- Order copies of the free The Real Truth brochure for teens and contact your local newspaper about publishing.
- Encourage your school to invite a D.A.R.E officer to talk about the issue.
- Host a town hall meeting on medicine abuse with the help of the Dose of Prevention toolkit developed by the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America and CHPA.
- Post a link to DXMstories.com on your school’s web site. DXMstories.com is a site developed by The Partnership at Drugfree.org and CHPA to explain the true dangers of cough medicine abuse.
Retailers:
- If you work in a drugstore or supermarket, be sure to have a copy of the free Preventing Teen Cough Medicine Abuse brochure on your counter for your customers.
- Team up with your local coalition and help host a town hall meeting on medicine abuse with the help of the Dose of Prevention toolkit developed by the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America and CHPA.
Healthcare professionals:
- Have copies of the Preventing Teen Cough Medicine Abuse guide available in your waiting rooms or on your pharmacy counter for parents to review and take home.
- Talk to your patients and their parents about this issue, discuss the dangers, and share the health risks involved in abusing medicine.
- Team up with your local coalition and participate in or host a town hall meeting on medicine abuse with the help of the Dose of Prevention toolkit developed by the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America and CHPA.
- School nurses, download Preventing Teen Medicine Abuse from Home to Homeroom and make the brochure available to parents in your school.
Law enforcement officers:
- Make sure the officers in your county all have the information they need to keep a watchful eye for medicine abuse by downloading this fact sheet especially for law enforcement.
- Host a town hall meeting on medicine abuse with the help of the Dose of Prevention toolkit developed by the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America and CHPA.
