According to the 2020 Missouri Student Survey

6.6% of Rockwood middle and high school students report using an Rx not prescribed for them by a doctor in the last 30 days. 
22.5% of Rockwood middle and high school students say it's 'very' or 'sort of' easy to get Rx drugs that have not been prescribed to them. 

Remove the Risk

Two-thirds of teens and young adults who report abuse of prescription medicine are getting it from friends, family and acquaintances. Make sure the young people in your life don't have access to any medications in your home. Follow these three steps to monitor, secure and properly dispose of unused and expired prescription and over-the-counter medicine in your home.

Monitor: Start by taking note of how many pills are in each of your prescription bottles and keep track of refills. If you find you need to refill your medicine more often than expected, that could indicate a problem. If your child has been prescribed medicine, be sure you control its use by monitoring dosages and refills.

Secure: Approach securing your prescriptions the same way you would other valuables in your home, like jewelry or cash. There's no shame in helping protect those items, and the same holds true for your medicine. Remove prescriptions from the medicine cabinet and secure them in a place only you know about. If possible, keep all medicine, both prescription and over-the-counter, in a safe place, such as a locked cabinet your teen cannot access.

Dispose: Safely disposing of expired or unused medicine is critical to helping protect your kids, family, and home. And it decreases the opportunity for visitors in your home, like your kids' friends, to abuse medicine as well. Dispose of unwanted or unused prescription drugs regularly. Fill out this form for a FREE Deterra disposal bag in the mail OR visit a local dropbox. 

Teen Prescription Abuse

Athletes & Prescription Drugs