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Keep your meds locked up By Deena Bouknight

Erie Times-News - 6/26/2017

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently revealed a startling statistic: 91 Americans die daily from an opioid overdose.

Dangerous drugs are no longer available only illegally and in crime-ridden areas. They are in our homes. Children are finding drugs like Vicodin and Oxycontin, or even cough medicines, and experimenting with the effects. In fact, New York State Department of Health reports that 4.5 million American kids admitted to abusing prescription drugs.

A misconception is that because the drugs were prescribed, they must be safer. But NYSDH's findings state otherwise: "Emergency room visits due to abuse of prescription drugs are more than the number of visits due to marijuana and heroin combined."

What can parents do?

Partnership for Drug-Free Kids points to monitoring as key. Know exactly how much of each medication is in a cabinet. Speak to kids about risks. Be vigilant, especially regarding medications that are highly addictive. Meet with parents of kids' friends and agree to be proactive about keeping home medications inventoried, out-of-reach and even locked away.

If you leave a prescription bottle on a countertop as a reminder to take it, CDC cautions, don't - put it away after each dose. Got old meds? Partnership for Drug-Free Kids has a downloadable Safe Drug Disposal Guide on its website, drugfree.org. Unused pills should not be thrown in the trash or flushed down the toilet. Curious and addicted kids have been known to retrieve medications thought to be disposed of by parents.

Finally, keeping drugs out of kids' hands is about education, information and relationship, cites NYSDH. Those whose parents are involved and openly dialoguing with them are 50 percent less likely to abuse drugs.

If you're concerned about abuse, talk to your doctor about nonopioid pharmacological therapies for pain.