'Legally Addicted' play focuses on adolescent prescription drug abuse

Parents, here’s an opportunity to bring your child to an eye-opening, educational play called “Legally Addicted” to learn about the realities and consequences of adolescent prescription drug use, and use this as a great springboard to talk to your children openly and honestly. Sponsored by Recovery Resources with support from the Westshore Youth Leaders and BAY Matters, the play will be performed on May 8, 7 p.m., at the Bay High School auditorium. The program is geared for parents and students in seventh through 12th grades.

The reason this event is very important for you to attend is supported by a brand new study from The Partnership at Drugfree.org and the MetLife Foundation, along with alarming trends we’re seeing here in our local community. One quarter of teens say they have misused or abused a prescription drug at least once, a 33 percent increase over the last five years! Contributing to this disturbing trend in teen medicine misuse and abuse are the lax attitudes of parents and caregivers. They are missing key opportunities to effectively communicate the dangers of prescription medicine misuse and abuse to their kids, while not safeguarding and disposing of their medications properly at home.

“This new data is not about blaming parents. Rather, it’s an urgent call to action for them to use their immense power to help curb this dangerous behavior, said  Steve Pasierb, president and CEO of The Partnership at Drugfree.org. "It’s about missed opportunities to protect their kids by having direct conversations with them about the health risks of misusing and abusing medicines – and to then moving to safeguard the medicines in their own home.

“Parental apathy on this issue is contributing to the problem. Yet the same data show year in and year out that kids who learn a lot about the risks of drug use at home are up to half as likely to use as kids who don’t get that life-changing gift from their parents.”

So parents – take advantage of this very important, free event and bring your questions for our expert panel of educators, drug prevention experts and law enforcement, hosted by Monica Robins from WKYC Channel 3.