Spring is in the air and the sun is finally shining again, which means more people will be out and about, enjoying the nice weather. It also means that soon our community will be active in one of its favorite weekend pastimes: garage sales.

Did you know that people may be looking for more than a good deal? If you allow people to use your bathroom, as most of us do, be sure to remove prescription medication from the medicine cabinet. This applies to strangers, as well as family and friends. You never know who may be addicted.

Prescription drug abuse is on the rise. It’s easily accessible, doesn’t cost a thing (if it’s stolen) and is easily transported.

Unlike meth addicts, it can be harder to tell who is getting high from prescription medication. Meth use symptoms included weight loss, nervousness, scabs (from itching), excessive amounts of energy and eventually tooth and hair loss.

Though the side effects aren’t as noticeable, it doesn’t mean that prescription drugs are less harmful. As any doctor will warn you, mixing certain medications can be lethal. No one knows potential side effects since everyone’s body chemistry and health concerns are different. Prescription drugs strike at the nervous system and internal organs and may cause permanent damage. In many cases, however, prescription drug abuse can also have long-term effects on mental and emotional well-being. For more information, visit the National Institute of Drug Abuse: http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofacts/PainMed.html

Partners in Prevention, along with several active committees, are working to reduce substance use and abuse among youth. One of PIP’s sub-committees, The Drug Education Task Force, is focusing on educating about the dangers of prescription drugs and encouraging youth to make good choices. Last fall we began the “Move, Watch, Dispose” campaign to educate about proper storage and disposal of prescription medication.

The most effective way to reduce the likelihood of people accessing prescription drugs is to follow these steps:

Move: Move your prescription medications.

Your medicine cabinet is no longer the place to keep your prescription medications. It is an obvious location for others looking to abuse prescription medications. The humidity in bathrooms also may compromise the integrity of medications.

Watch: Watch, keep track, monitor youth use.

Prescription drugs are readily available to teens. Too often old and un-used prescription medications are kept and stored (even after they are expired). You may not be aware that people are taking pills from bottles you no longer use. Keep count of how many pills remain and monitor your child’s medications.

Dispose: Follow U.S. Federal guidelines

Many medications cannot be flushed down the toilet. But it’s also not a good idea to throw them directly in the trash. To make sure you are properly disposing medications, it’s recommended to grind them up, then mix with an undesirable substance such as kitty litter or coffee grounds and place them into a separate bag to prevent leakage. For more information, please visit the Food and Drug Administration’s Web site: http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm101653.htm

Addiction is difficult to overcome; it can take many years to build one’s life back up after going through the cycle over and over again. The best choice is to never start. As a community, we can support people recovering from addiction, but it is also our role to educate ourselves about how to prevent people from using in the first place.

And when it comes to our children and our teenagers, any small effort we can make is worth it—because they are our future and they deserve the best we can offer them from this world of ours.

The Drug Education Task Force is excited to offer a training by Jay Jaffee, Chemical Health Coordinator from the Minnesota Department of Health. The training will take place at Albert Lea Medical Center on Friday, April 16th and will address “Prescription and Over-the-Counter Drug Abuse.” Jaffee will provide data about prescription drug abuse and address why this trend has occurred over the past decade.

Please feel free to contact Alice Englin, 377-5504, for more information about this event.

Ann Austin is the chairwoman of the Drug Education Task Force.