Talbot Partnership for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention has announced that the week of September 23-29 has been designated as “Wake Up to Medicine Abuse Week”. This initiative is intended to bring the public and private sectors together in a national education effort and call to action to curb the abuse of medicine, one of the biggest drug problems in the United States today.

According to Talbot Partnership, the consequences of medicine abuse, including emergency room episodes, treatment admissions and overdose deaths, have increased dramatically, and it is a behavior that is starting in adolescence. Every day, 2,500 teens use a prescription drug to get high for the first time, and the death toll from prescription painkillers alone has tripled in the past decade.

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin recently stated: “Abuse of prescription drugs is a bigger problem in the United States than most people realize, especially among youth,” said Dr. Benjamin. “We have to make our parents, our educators, our health professionals, our legislators and most importantly, adolescents themselves; aware of the pervasiveness of prescription drug abuse and its harmful consequences…Education is a crucial first step in tackling this problem.”

“Wake Up to Medicine Abuse Week” is intended create a national education effort and call-to-action to curb the abuse of medicine. Talbot Partnership is encouraging Talbot County parents and the public-at-large to take action: first, by talking with the kids in their lives about the dangers of abusing prescription and over-the-counter medicines, and second, by safeguarding and properly disposing of unused medications.

For further information on the dangers of prescription medications, alcohol, and other drugs, contacts Talbot Partnership at 410-819-8067.