Getting Involved in National Medicine Abuse Awareness Month

October is National Medicine Abuse Awareness Month, which presents a timely opportunity to promote community involvement in efforts to educate parents about the dangers of medicine abuse among teens. There are a number of free resources and tools available for coalitions to use in their medicine abuse prevention efforts.

Here is a list of free online resources available on this issue:

• National Medicine Abuse Awareness Month Toolkit and brochure on over-the-counter cough medicine abuse:
www.stopmedicineabuse.org

• The "Prescription Drug Strategizer," developed by CADCA in collaboration with the Media Campaign, shows how to create effective strategies to fight prescription and over-the-counter drug abuse in your community and highlights relevant case studies and resources.
www.cadca.org

• A video discussion guide to help your organization reach out to parents and teens on the issue of teen prescription drug abuse, developed by the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign (Media Campaign):
www.theantidrug.com/pdfs/RxVideoDiscussionGuide_081409.pdf

• A prescription drug abuse brochure, developed by the Media Campaign, is a succinct outline of the growing prescription drug problem and prevention tips for parents:
www.theantidrug.com/pdfs/resources/teen-rx/Prescription_Abuse_brochure.pdf

• "Rx Wallet Card,” which can be tailored with your organization’s logo:
www.theantidrug.com/pdfs/TAD-Rx-Wallet-Card.pdf

• More than a dozen Open Letter print ads are available for your organization to customize and distribute to your local media, your members, stakeholders, and partners:
www.theantidrug.com/openletter/#prescription