Help Stop Our Teens From Abusing Cough Medicine

At the BlogHer conference in Chicago earlier this year, I had the pleasure of meeting the bloggers from the "Five Moms". They are on a mission to help keep our children safe and  below you will find the results of an annual survey to see how their efforts are making a difference in the well being of our youth. Seven months ago, the Five Moms set out to raise awareness among parents that teens were abusing cough medicine to get high. Yesterday, one of the most respected yearly surveys of school-aged children and substance abuse - Monitoring the Future - was released. Monitoring the Future is a report on teenage substance abuse conducted by the University of Michigan and funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. It is in its 33rd year, surveying 50,000 8th, 10th, and 12th graders nationwide on smoking, drinking, and drug use. According to the survey, 4, 5.4, and 5.8 percent of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders, respectively, reported abusing OTC cough medicines to get high. While we are pleased that cough medicine abuse did not increase among 8th and 10th graders over last year's findings, and actually decreased among 12th graders, our ultimate goal is that our efforts to raise awareness about the dangers of medicine abuse result in a decrease among all age groups. Until we accomplish this, our job isn't done. More parents need to be made aware of this disturbing trend that continues to impact our kids. Make a difference to protect yours by telling your friends. With your continued help, next year we hope to report even better news. Please keep the conversations going with neighbors, teachers, and other members of your community. Thank you for making a difference. Sincerely, Christy Crandell

Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this. Tell-a-friend!

Comments

[Christy Crandell]

On behalf of the Five Moms, I’d like to thank you for your help in spreading the good news about the Monitoring the Future Report. We were so excited to see your post last week because it demonstrated how fantastic the Five Moms members are.

Thanks for taking the time to share our information with your readers. Have a happy holiday season!

Christy

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Thank you so much for posting this. Cough medicine can make a teenager addicted to it, it gives them a different high.