The CDC has claimed prescription drug abuse has been the fastest growing drug problem in the U.S. But, new reports say the number of teenagers using these drugs have decreased 14%.
Although there has been a large decrease nation-wide of teenagers abusing prescription drugs, that hasn't been seen here. Impact Futures Drug Free Community Collation reports there has only been a .4% percent decrease this year. But, in the past month that has dropped to more than 1%.
Education is a key factor in battling this problem, not only just for teenagers, but also parents.
"So getting the message our there to teens that these medications are not safe for abuse. That they need to be used only by direction of a physician. And, to get our parents to throw them out is the best thing we could do right now," Jeanie Jaramillo, managing director for Texas Panhandle Poison Center says.
The Poison Center holds a "Clean Out Day" twice a year to get these unused medications out of the medicine cabinet. During their last clean out at the beginning of this month, they disposed of more than 750 pounds of prescription drugs.
Impact Futures will be holding a town hall meeting on October 25th to further discuss the problem of prescription drug abuse.
