Cleaning Out the Medicine Chest: A Nationwide Initiative Is Launched to Combat Prescription Drug Abuse

From covering electric outlets to installing safety gates, new parents often child-proof their homes months before baby has even learned to crawl. Shielding one's children from danger is a natural instinct, yet, as infants grow into teenagers and young adults, many parents let down their guard when it comes to in-home safety. Increasingly, otherwise vigilant moms and dads (and often grandparents) are unwittingly providing easy opportunities for substance abuse simply by not monitoring the bathroom medicine cabinet.

Here's wishing you a season without a need to open your medicine cabinet following your equinox preparations. Please send comments and checklist additions to Ingrid@Ingridients.com.5. Vitamin DRACHEL BRAUN SCHERL and Mary Wallace Jaensch have spent their entire careers helping big-name companies understand how to market products to female consumers.3. A Context for Expiration DatesShelve healthful bacteria. Intestinal bugs are a lot like the sun, essential for our survival and usually overlooked (by those other than Townsend Letter subscribers!). Among their many functions, the microbes that live in our linings help protect us from virus infections. Probiotics taken daily may be especially helpful for young children, in addition to a daily serving of yogurt, kefir, or other fermented dairy."There were a couple of events in the predecessor company's history where the product shows had such an unbelievable response," she said. "Even now, the most powerful communication we have is a PR event.Harvest some plant energy. Phytonutrients exert strong influences on the human immune system, which is the reason that some phytonutrients have been developed into anticancer and antiallergy medicines. Most of our phytonutrients should come from eating a plant-based diet. However, with onset of cold and flu symptoms, supplemental phytonutrients offer added benefit. My top 4 phytonutrients for the medicine cabinet are:8. Healing OilsSheriff Gene A. Kelly of Clark County, Ohio (population 140,000) describes the effects of prescription drug abuse on small-town America: "We recently made arrests at several high schools and a middle school for students selling, trading, and giving away prescription medications to other students. We also recently arrested two young women for abusing Fentanyl patches." According to Sheriff Kelly, prescription drug abuse impacts every neighborhood and often is the catalyst for other crimes. "We have had multiple reports of home contractors asking to use the restroom and then stealing medications or coming back later to commit burglary. These could have resulted in very violent confrontations."

Community feedback from September 25 has been so positive that jurisdictions are considering future events. Sheriff Kelly, for one, reports that Clark County is already considering a second take-back day for spring 20 1 1 . In early October, Congress cleared legislation that will allow the DEA to create a framework for a permanent solution for prescription drug disposal. Until permanent regulations are in place, the DEA will continue to sponsor take-back programs.