Nannies Must Use a Medicine Safe

One in Five Teens Has Abused Prescription Medication Found in the Medicine Cabinet

The Number One Cause of Drug Addiction is Medical Prescriptions Given Legally by Physicians, Not Illicit Drugs

I just had a very sobering talk with a local pediatrician. Now that one of my charges has started dating I asked the doctor about my concerns on the subject.

The doctor said to me, "Don't worry so much about dating and sex, worry about drugs that are in the medicine cabinet. Do you know how many 16-years-olds I see that are addicted to prescription medications in your town?"

The pediatrician continued, "The best advice I can give you is to make sure all prescription medications and cough medicine are kept in a medicine safe."

And the research proves she is right. In the United States, it is estimated that about 2,500 teens daily abuse prescription "legal" drugs for the first time. Most of them get those drugs from the family medicine cabinet.

According to The Partnership for a Drug-Free America one in five (20%) of teens have abused a prescription pain medication. One in five teens report they have abused prescription stimulants and tranquilizers. One in ten teens has abused cough medicine.

The bathroom medicine cabinet is the first place kids will look for drugs. Teens wanting to get "high" will visit the homes of friends, ask to use the bathroom, and go straight for the medicine cabinet. Remove prescription medications from the family medicine cabinet and secure them in a medicine safe.

Children are known take medication to get "high" at as young as 12-years-old. So, the discussion about the dangers of prescription medications should start when children are young.

If someone in the household is taking pain killers, tranquilizers, stimulants, or cough medicine secure the medications in a medicine safe.