KFDA - NewsChannel 10 / Amarillo News, Weather, SportsThe battle continues against prescription drug abuse in Amarillo schools

NewsChannel 10

Amarillo, Texas - It's a new school year, but the same old problem- prescription drug abuse among Amarillo students. It's a battle turned stalemate.

Vicodin, Xanax, even over-the-counter meds like cough syrup, are easy to get a hold of and easy to abuse. They often come right out of your medicine cabinet.

Safe Schools/Healthy Students director Melynn Huntley says, "We want parents to inventory their medicine cabinets. They need to know exactly what's in there and if they need to, go ahead and do a count as to how many pills are in each bottle so they know when they are disappearing. When kids take the medications they don't take the whole bottle. They are going to slip out one or two pills at a time."

While the problem isn't getting worse in Amarillo, it certainly isn't getting better. More than 10% of AISD students say they use prescription drugs, a number that isn't changing. But the answer could be in your hands.

Huntley explains, "The one thing we are doing differently is Medication Clean Out. I have to believe that whenever we are doing these big take-back programs and destroying these medications, we are preventing grandchildren from walking into their grandparents' house and grabbing something."

In the past few years, 5,000 pounds of pills have been collected.

Ronica Farrar with the Texas Panhandle Poison Center says, "We are getting about 25 containers from each vehicle that comes in, so 25 bottles of medication that people no longer want or need are in their homes. Most people say if the program didn't exist, they would just keep them."

Start clearing out your medicine cabinets tonight, because the next Medication Clean Out is coming up. It is Saturday, September 10th from 10 AM to 2 PM at the Texas Tech School of Pharmacy in Amarillo. It is a drive-thru event and organizers ask that you leave the pills in their original containers.