About 60-70% of teens say medicine cabinets at home are their source for drugs. Mary Barrios, healthy living coordinator at the Children's Coalition for Northeast Louisiana, encourages parents to be more responsible with prescription medications in the home. 

Barrios says the best way to combat prescription drug abuse is to dispose expired or unused medications. With National Prescription Take-Back Day around the corner, parents and professionals will be able to push-back against the opioid epidemic by leading by example. 

On how prescription drug abuse is different than other drug abuse
Access. It’s in our medicine cabinet at home. About 60-70% of teens say that that is their source of drugs. It’s readily accessible to them, and we know that in the past pills have been over-prescribed. At one point, I heard that there were enough [over prescribed] pills for every American to have one bottle of pills – it’s just that much available. We know with opioids, they hit the same centers of your brain as heroin. For a lot of them – somebody who misuses or abuses – this medicine can lead to the potential of using heroin.     

On how communities can combat prescription drug abuse
Most importantly, we have something called Prescription Take-Back Day on April 28th. What does that mean? Eliminate access. Get rid of the extra, expired, and unused medications that are in your home. If you do have some that you are using, make sure that they are put up in a safe place – not laying around where somebody can come around and take them. There are also some permanent drop-boxes in our community. You can go to the Children’s Coalition website and get a list if you’re not able to make it for that particular day.  

On talking to adolescents and teens about prescription drugs
First, it’s understanding how important it is. Statistics say that children and teens who learn about the risks of drug abuse from their parents are up to 50% less likely to try drugs – parents are a vital part of deterring that behavior. Parents should also model the behavior they want to see in their kids. 
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On modelling healthy behavior towards prescription medications
Giving away prescriptions that you don't use anymore is what we call misuse. Taking prescriptions after a prescribed period is also a misuse. It’s not that you plan on abusing the drugs, but it is a misuse of the drug. Those are prescribed to you for a specific situation. Make sure that you’re only using drugs or medication that is prescribed to you in the way that it was prescribed to you. Teach your children to respect drugs and understand that they come with risks. Just because they’re in your medicine cabinet doesn’t mean they’re any safer than rugs that are on the street. If parents are looking for resources, generationRX.org is a great resource. They have everything from how to talk to your children about prescription medications all the way up to senior citizens.

Within the past year, up to 80% of high school seniors have admitted to using cannabis. Dr. Jay Piland, addictionologist at Pecan Haven Adolescent Addiction and Treatment Center, discusses how parents can begin talking about substance use with their children. 

Piland says substance use can be a progressive disorder; therefore, parents should take an active approach and intervene as early as possible throughout their child's development process. 

On substances commonly used by adolescents
Currently, the most commonly abused substances are prescription pain medications and opioids.  Some of the newer substances are: mojo, synthetic cannabis, and cradum. These drugs are technically not illegal in the United States, but certainly impactful on the adolescent population.

On the difference between substance use and its progression in adolescents and adults
For instance, within the past year 75-80% of high school seniors have used cannabis. It doesn’t indicate that they have an actual abuse disorder, but casual use is where it starts. Many epidemiologic studies – which are done to study the distribution of diseases – make modifications in addiction medicine with regards to the adolescent population.

​Addiction is more of a developmental disorder and it starts at the use level, becomes misuse, and then progresses to an actual substance use disorder. For those that are genetically prone, there’s an interaction with earlier factors such as: Adverse Childhood Experiences, genetic variables, and the process of genetic changes that occur within the expression of a person’s genetic code. The genetic code doesn’t change, but the expression of the genetic code can change depending on the use of substances.

On warning signs and resources to combat adolescent substance use
The early warning signs can be changes in behavior, changes in friends, changes in academic performance, changes in interests and extracurricular activities. Also, adolescents which are experimenting or have a substance use disorder tend to socially identify with other individuals of like minds.

Parents can gain information from certain websites such as: the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) at drugabuse.gov and Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) at samhsa.gov. 

On how parents and professionals can begin discussing substance use with adolescents
There is a higher probability for adolescents to develop a substance use disorder the earlier adolescents start using substances. In the past, we’ve attempted to educate the adolescent population with regard to the risk involved with regard to substance use. Usually, intervention comes after finding out about substance use. Parents should attempt to intervene as early as possible throughout the spectrum of development. 
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Time to Talk is produced with the Children's Coalition for Northeast Louisiana and BayouLife Magazine.

A collaborative coalition targeting underage drinking and the non-medical use of prescription pills in Union Parish is increasing a primary focus — prevention and solution — with mobile prescription take back boxes and a permanent box at the sheriff's office.
LaTonya Owens, Regional Prevention Coordinator, NE Delta HSA, said the new collection locations will allow people to turn in unused or expired prescription medication, no questions asked. She said the mobile units will be deployed to locations throughout northeast Louisiana on Oct. 22, the national prescription take back day.

The Union Parish Alliance for Community Transformation Coalition, or U-ACT, partnered with the Children's Coalition of Northeast Louisiana, the ULM School of Pharmacy, Brookshire's, Generation Rx, the UPSO and Cardinal Health to launch the collection boxes.
"We (U-ACT) have two things we focus on primarily, which is reducing the instances of underage drinking and the non-medical use of prescription drugs," Mary Barrios, U-ACT project coordinator, said. "We focus on those two areas, and we did that by developing an action plan."
She said many of the coalition's programs are directly related to the schools, such as a student ambassador program at Union Parish High School.
"We not only tell kids you shouldn't do drugs, you shouldn't drink...it's about talking to kids about making positive choices and giving them the opportunity to do that," Barrios said. "With student ambassadors, we try to bring them to new opportunities and things they might not try otherwise."
U-ACT's coalition is managed by the Northeast Delta Human Services Authority and similar initiatives may role out to other communities in northeast Louisiana based on need according to executive director Dr. Monteic Sizer.
"It is a pilot program for us," Sizer said. "Union Parish was selected primarily due to a significant amount of teens using prescriptions and other illicit substances. Our plan was to see how we could engage communities in that area to help us help those young people not use illicit and/or illegal substances, and we are making a significant difference already in that area. We will certainly also expand to other areas where the need is also great."
As part of the partnership, the coalition has worked with faith-based institutions, the hospital, the district attorney's office and local judges, he said.
Barrios also said the community has been extremely open to partnerships and numerous events are on the horizon, including a youth summit and "social norming" campaigns to help teens understand misperceptions around underage drinking.
"There are so many things a collective group of like-minded people can do with the resources that we have," Barrios said. "I think what we've found is that our partners have resources, and they may not know what to do with them. We've been able to braid a lot of things together and bring people to the table, and that has really led to a lot of success for us."

Union parish Alliance for Community Transformation (U-ACT) will host a week of activities throughout various Union Parish schools in honor of Red Ribbon Week — a national campaign for drug and alcohol abuse awareness.
U-ACT is a program of the Children's Coalition for Northeast Louisiana and is funded by Northeast Delta Human Services Authority.
Events will culminate on Friday with Wear Red Day.
The kickoff event was Monday at Union Parish High School with a performance from “Big” Al Cherry, a gospel and hip-hop recording artist from northeastern Louisiana.
Other activities include a poster contest, pledge and cookie days, a door decorating contest and informational sessions about the dangers of drugs.
On Friday, students will wear red at participating schools, and a balloon release will be scheduled at Union Parish Elementary school.
U-ACT and the Children’s Coalition are asking the community to support students in their pledge to be safe, healthy, and drug free by wearing red on Friday.

Union Parish, La. (KNOE 8 News) - Kids who start drinking before the age of 15 are five times more likely to abuse alcohol later in life, compared to those who start after 21.
Union Parish has one of the highest teen drug and alcohol problems in the state and the Children's Coalition of Northeast Louisiana wants to do something about it.
"And we were identified as a high need community and what we were entrusted to do is to create an action plan to reduce underage drinking as well as non-medical use of prescription drugs," says Mary Barrios of Children's Coalition for Northeast Louisiana.
Leaders from across Union Parish met Thursday to talk about creating an alcoholics anonymous meeting for teens. These meeting would also be for those who use drugs and battle depression. The meetings will likely be at Union General Hospital.
"I think it well help the law enforcement as well as the school system, but we can save some lives. We can prevent some emergency and trauma victims," says Union General Hospital Consultant Sherry Banks