When you walk into your local Publix Pharmacy in January, please thank the pharmacist and store manager for helping to prevent prescription drug abuse!

Once again, Publix is partnering with Informed Families to promote an important new years message: Lock Your Meds. The Lock Your Meds campaign, created by the National Family Partnership and sponsored by Informed Families in Florida, educates adults about the importance of securing medication to keep them out of the wrong hands.

Lock Your Meds asks individuals to secure their medication, take regular inventory to ensure nothing is missing, safely dispose of unused or expired medication and share the message with friends and family.

The campaign will be featured in 1,022 Publix Pharmacy stores across Southeastern United States. Each Publix Pharmacy store will have in-store counter signage and printed pharmacy receipts with a Lock Your Meds Message. This is the fifth year in a row that Publix, the fastest growing grocery chain in America, is collaborating with Informed Families to reduce prescription drug abuse in Florida's communities. 

‘Tis the season for giving! Two Florida schools are the recipient of $1,000 each as part of Informed Families' 2016 Florida Red Ribbon Week Photo Contest. Gabriela Sanchez of Miami won an iPad for her family and $1,000 for Good Shepherd Catholic School. Paola Stauffer, an administrator at Orlando Science Elementary School, won an iPad for herself and $1,000 for her school.

The contest took place as a part of National Red Ribbon Week ® – the nation’s oldest and largest drug prevention campaign, sponsored by the National Family Partnership (NFP). During the month of October, the Sanchez family decorated their home front door and Paola Stauffer worked with her Orlando Science Elementary School community to decorate the school's campus with this year’s Red Ribbon Week theme, “YOLO. Be Drug Free™.” All this was done to promote their commitment to living a healthy and drug-free lifestyle.

“I loved decorating my home with a drug free message,” said Gabriela Sanchez, a teacher and mother of two children who attend Good Shepherd Catholic School. “The contest is an activity that brings families together and it’s a positive message. Not only did we decorate, but we talked to our children about how important it is for them to stay away from drugs. We discussed what to do if they are ever in the position where they are offered drugs.”

The effort to reduce alcohol use among teenagers has shown real progress in Florida and around the country. Underage drinking is down, and marijuana and heroin use is holding steady, for now. However, for every victory, another concern seemingly arises to challenge the effort to stop drugs in schools. For example, more people in the U.S. now use prescription painkillers (38 percent) than tobacco products (31 percent). Not every person taking painkillers is necessarily misusing them, but the statistic shows how prevalent they have become, which in turn demonstrates how easily teens can obtain pills and put themselves at risk. In fact, 66% of abused prescription opioids come from friends and family. Additionally, Amendment 2 (medical marijuana) passed in Florida, which means there will be increased availability and likely decreased perception of risk, which leads to increased use.

As much as teenagers might be loath to admit it, parents are the greatest influencers in their lives, especially when it comes to discouraging them from alcohol and drugs. One survey of 663 teens discovered that of the respondents whose parents felt underage drinking was unacceptable, only 8 percent of the kids were drinkers themselves. Contrast that with parents who thought underage drinking was OK—the number of teen drinkers in the survey jumped to 42 percent. This finding only goes to reinforce the power one parent can possess in influencing his or her children.

Now imagine it’s not just one parent but many parents working together in your community. That kind of united effort can make a real difference in helping keep teens safe. Parent support groups—or more specifically, parent peer groups—can effect positive change in your neighborhood and community. Here are some ideas for starting such a group in your area:

Being a parent of a teenager can be rewarding, joyous, maddening and infuriating—all at the same time. Unfortunately, it can also be frightening, especially with the prevalence of drugs and alcohol. Despite decades of prevention efforts and laws to limit access to booze and drugs, teens are still finding ways to use and abuse illegal substances.

Raising healthy kids can be difficult in today’s world, and the world isn’t exactly helping. Consider society and the media’s messaging on marijuana, for example. Casual pot smoking has become almost accepted, yet teens (and parents) don’t understand marijuana is more potent—and, thus, more dangerous—than ever. Kids might not fully realize the impact that drugs and alcohol can have on their health. As parents, your job is to help your children come to that realization; they need to know the facts in order to make smart choices. Here are some impacts that drugs and alcohol can have on otherwise healthy kids:

Teens already are under tremendous pressure with school, their families and the simple fact that adolescent years are a naturally confusing and exciting time for most kids. Enter drugs and alcohol and you see why teens might feel overwhelmed. Educators might feel the same way—after all, part of helping students succeed, aside from academic support, is helping to students make healthy choices and avoiding negative behaviors which can hinder their growth and future success.  

Angela Nealy’s kind and nurturing personality is just what’s needed in her role as Gotha Middle School’s SAFE Coordinator and in her role as an Informed Families Ambassador. SAFE, which stands for Student Assistance and Family Empowerment, is a program to assist in making school campuses safe and drug free so all students have the opportunity to be successful in school. This is done through preventive, supportive and responsive action. And her zebra print sofa helps offer a sense of comfort to all (students and adults) that enter the SAFE Zone. Nealy, who has worked as a school administrator for 19 years, works with the students, staff and parents in these efforts.

“I am most concerned with getting factual information into the hands of our students,” said Nealy. “Middle school is such an impressionable time. I don’t want our students obtaining incorrect information from their friends and sometimes their siblings and then being tempted to try something dangerous as a result.”  

43 Florida schools and 19 Florida families need your help to win the 2016 National Red Ribbon Photo Contest. Winners are determined by who has the most votes in each region. Florida entries, which are competing in region 4 of the contest, are just some of the many entries representing multiple states in the southeast vying for the top prize: an ipad and $1,000 for a K-12 school.

However, even if the Florida participants don't get the top prize in their region in the National contest, which is co-sponsored by the National Family Partnership and the DEA, Informed Families will be giving out a special prize (an iPad and $1,000 for a K-12 school) to the top school entry and top home entry in Florida with the most votes.  

The contest asked families to decorate their front door, mailbox or fence and school's to decorate their campus with a double looped red ribbon and this year's theme: "YOLO. Be Drug Free."

So what are you waiting for? Vote for your favorite at www.redribbon.org/vote! Voting takes place between now and November 17th.

Drug Prevention Tools and Tips Offered to Schools and Families During Nationwide Celebration

Informed Families, a Florida nonprofit devoted to helping kids grow up safe, healthy and drug-free, is proud to be the sponsor of Florida's Red Ribbon Week™ 2016, set for Oct. 23-31. More details about this campaign can be found at http://www.flredribbon.org.

Red Ribbon Week was created by the National Family Partnership after the death of DEA Agent Kiki Camarena in Mexico in 1985. This tragedy led to the continuing tradition of displaying red ribbons as a symbol of intolerance toward the use of drugs. Red Ribbon Week is an opportunity for parents and schools to show support for a drug-free America -- and to talk to children about making healthy choices. The national theme for Red Ribbon Week 2016 is "YOLO. Be Drug Free."™

Red Ribbon Week is approaching, and middle schools across Florida will be raising awareness and facilitating communication about kids making healthy choices. The red ribbons that teachers and students will wear aren’t just for decoration—they signify a commitment to staying safe and resisting the dangers of teenage drug and alcohol use. Such a campaign would seem naturally geared toward high schoolers, but the message is just effective for middle schoolers and even earlier. In fact, the years when kids are 11-14 might be the most important time to deliver these messages.

As much as we want to believe middle schoolers aren’t old enough to be abusing drugs and alcohol, the reality is junior high kids are just as vulnerable as high schoolers, perhaps even more so. The parts of the young adolescent brain that deal with stress are still maturing, and the coping mechanisms they learn now can become ingrained for the rest of their lives. If middle schoolers turn to drugs this early, they can be setting themselves up for a lifetime of struggle.