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STOP Teen Access to Alcohol

Teen drinking is not inevitable. More than 58% of high school seniors do not drink alcohol, reducing their current risk of injury. One way to prevent teens from drinking is to cut off easy access to alcohol. Unfortunately, right now most teens report that it is easy to get alcohol. Almost 72% of teens who drink get alcohol without having …

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Clermont County Parents Say No to Nicotine Experiments on Kids

Imagine if your child brought home a permission slip for you to sign – allowing them to participate in a study of the effects of nicotine on their developing brain. Ummm…NO!!! We don’t need to allow our kids to become experiments to know that nicotine is addictive and causes harm to their developing brains. Unfortunately companies have been successfully marketing …

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Protect Children from Prescription Stimulant Abuse

Stimulant medications including amphetamines (e.g., Adderall) and methylphenidate (e.g., Ritalin and Concerta) are often prescribed to treat children, adolescents, or adults diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Prescription stimulants have a calming and “focusing” effect on individuals with ADHD. They are prescribed to patients for daily use, and come in the form of tablets or capsules of varying dosages. Treatment …

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How to Talk to your Child about Marijuana

Talking to your child about marijuana and other drugs is undeniably difficult. Often, the hardest part is starting the conversation. It is important to get in the right frame of mind and set the stage for an effective conversation about substances. Here are some strategies to do so. Keep an open mind. If you want to have a productive conversation …

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Parenting Styles and Underage Drinking

Drinking alcohol undoubtedly is a part of American culture, as are conversations between parents and children about its risks and potential benefits. However, information about alcohol can seem contradictory. Alcohol affects people differently at different stages of life—small amounts may have health benefits for certain adults, but for children and adolescents, alcohol can interfere with normal brain development. Alcohol’s differing …

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Positive Parenting Prevents Marijuana Use

Talk to your children about the dangers of drug abuse. The following five questions, developed by the Child and Family Center at the University of Oregon, highlight parenting skills that are important in preventing the initiation and progression of marijuana and other drug use among youth: 1. Are you able to communicate calmly and clearly with your teenager regarding relationship …

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Prescription Opioid Abuse: A First Step to Heroin Use

Prescription opioid pain medications such as OxyContin and Vicodin can have effects similar to heroin when taken in doses or in ways other than prescribed, and are currently among the most commonly abused drugs in the United States.  Research now suggests that abuse of these drugs may open the door to heroin addiction. Nearly half of young people surveyed who …

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Rx Drug Misuse…Not What the Doctor Ordered!

Prescription drug misuse is when someone takes a medication that was prescribed for someone else or takes their own prescription in a way not intended by a doctor or for a different reason—like to get high. It has become a big health issue because of the dangers, particularly the danger of misusing prescription pain medications. For teens, it is a …

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Underage Drinking…

IT’S NON-NEGOTIABLE NO USE – NO WAY! Many parents wrestle with the issue of underage drinking. Ideally, no parent wants their teen to drink or use drugs, but some parents are tempted to accept teen drinking as a harmless rite of passage. It’s unhealthy and unsafe behavior. So how can you protect your child from harm? Here are some tips: There …

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What is Fentanyl?   

Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid analgesic that is similar to morphine but is 50 to 100 times more potent. It is a schedule II prescription drug, and it is typically used to treat patients with severe pain or to manage pain after surgery. It is also sometimes used to treat patients with chronic pain who are physically tolerant to other opioids. In its …