you know what we're talking about and the magnitude of the topic and so one of the key things that i found very powerful the first one that shared with me was about seventy percent of people who start to misuse prescription drugs get them from their friends and family and we're going to talk about how does that happen yes and also twelve percent of new jersey high school students report having prescriptions drugs without a doctor's prescription again how does that you know that's like these are the big questions that we're putting out there and that's what not least every day in the u s two thousand five hundred youth aged twelve through seventeen ages twelve through seventeen abuse prescription painkillers that is it's really really significant and that's for the first time first time use so  like stories do how did you get involved with the coalition if you like to share and you know i was in i had a prevention education background with my agency hundred of prevention resources and it just kind of evolved from moving on to the prevention from prevention education in the schools to working on the coalition that's awesome  y i have a background in social work and my organization empower somerset has always had prevention as part of its its mission i think over time prevention as a field has been has grown into looking at changes across the community and response to some of the statistics that you mention how we can work collaboratively with other partners as a coalition to make changes across our communities  when you collaborate really here you have a greater impact i would think we're absolutely we have the same common goals to reduce substance abuse in her in somerset county and we need different sectors of the communities to help us reach our common goals to do that absolutely significant you know one things and all of this and we talked about sed young people abusing and so forth but i went to an event i think about a few months ago and what i think they talked about senior citizens also and maybe we can do to that later on but i just want i just want to set the stage to say this is not only something that's happening with our young people and it's something that's impacting our morals the board of different age groups and you can see here is this the last thing my mind that i would ever think that seniors would be addicted or being involved in and you know i'm using drugs so this is something that's very important for us to be aware of so what is safe communities coalition what do you  do well the mission of the coalition is to create safe and healthy communities by eliminating underage drinking prescription drug abuse and illegal drug use if i miss and feel free to missing anything here but we we approach this mission by working collaboratively with different community sectors as we mentioned so we primarily the state communities coalition of pattern in somerset is managed primarily by under prevention resources empower somerset and raritan valley community college is a big partner they which is perfect because they are the community college for both counties so it works very well and then we also work with our local law enforcement and schools health care representatives county government elected officials parents it's the list goes on and on but we really we need all of these different perspectives  to help us address the problem from different from different ways right their expertise is crucial to you know reach helping us reach our goals this is very important and you talk about all these great partners that you do do you go out and do  presentation to like the school and the community organizer you know groups we do we do go out into the community in fact we just did two hundred fifty nights at one of the local high schools where it was for the juniors and their parents in order for them to get a parking space for their senior year there it's mandatory for them to attend to that's kind of how we get them there a little bit of it a little bit of an incentive but it's important information that they do receive you know as far  as social hosting where parents are providing alcohol to their children and their friends and a far as giving them information as the nine one one lifeline the act which is a law that instills that if you know if you're out with someone and there are absurd exhibiting signs of overdosing with alcohol that they can call nine one and they would receive immunity they wouldn't get into trouble because of that yeah it's quite often what happens is the kids are scared so they either leave their friends at home they don't really tell the parents what they've been drinking or they leave them at a party and then just go because they're afraid of getting into  gives them the avenue a tool to be able to use it so they can save a life i mean really that's the best possible that's right be your best significant what you just shared with us and i think so much so important for young people be aware of that but also parents absolutely know to be aware that they are there there are safeguards in place that prevent people from young people from being so near it and to be able to share so that they can get the help that they need it's absolutely going hand in hand with that with relation prescription pills and heroin there's also the overdose protection act that provides some immunity for people who seek medical help in the case of a drug overdose whether it's prescriptions or illegal drugs so that law was also put into place  not just for minors but for anyone who can respond to help someone who's overdosed so this awesome yeah it's really just to save a lot you know to save a life because so many young people were dying because they didn't get the help that they needed and there is a making we try to take advantage of any opportunity possible to raise awareness so one thing that we're doing around around prom season is providing the nine one one lifeline legislation information to to students when they're having different prom events in their schools so we have some of those things going on community events like national night out for example that takes place in several towns we try to raise have to do this because i think it's important to address this issue we actually have cards that we've made up so where every event that we go to we hand them out we give them to guidance counselors and students assistance counselors out of all the high schools and they hand them out to their students so we've done press releases on the topic it's on our website the information as well as you know to go out on facebook periodical some other social networks that's very so what are some of the successes that a collision has had this far well i think one of our biggest successes that we've had as a coalition regionally is the creation of the documentary pills to heroin  definitely a group effort with the safe communities coalition and we have actually you teens and young adults that are in the video that have gone through this  process from different avenues you know not just experimenting but also someone who was in an accident and was prescribed the paying hell's pain killers and how you know her journey you know when how she became addicted to these pain pills and then quickly moved on to heroin i think that documentary right now has been shown pretty much across the state in new jersey in different in different avenues it's on the  new jersey state department of education list for curriculum as a tool that teachers can use we have it in rare in valley community college they use it in their classes as well as cane university and many of the high schools have incorporated it into their drug and alcohol curriculums so it's really shows you the process of how these pills are obtained and how they quickly turned to her own because the heroin is so know that you can be a very huge burden and easier to obtain you don't have to go to a doctor to get were you one of the things that we want people to realize parents and the community through things like pills to heroin is how i highly addictive per scription pain medicines can be we do see and some of the examples on the documentary are people that started out with a medical condition where they received a painkiller and then the addiction progressed from there so we want people to be aware that these are addictive substances when somebody is dependent and it's there they're so similar to heroin that just to avoid the withdrawal the desperation often leads them down that path but another main takeaway message of the pills to heroin documentary i think is being aware of cleaning out your medicine cabinets at home because we've seen availability is a big contributing factor to this problem you had mentioned earlier that seventy percent of users and abusers get their r r x opioid pills pain pills from their families medicine cabinets their friends dentists and cabinet it's even at a point now of such availability that people will go and look for open houses of someone selling their hole to go into their home and then go with their cap medicine cabinet is to take these pills you know it's very very prevalent so that's what you know one of the reasons why we urge people to reduce that availability by getting rid of any medicines that are expired you know not being used and reduce that availability to the in the garbage or do you dispose of it well what we suggest is to go to a permanent drop off box that a permanent drop off box is located in a secure twenty four hour security place such as most mostly in police departments we currently have eight in one hundred in county and there's six in somerset county and there's one also pending in somerset as well so what we suggest is that you white off your  information your personal information keep them in the containers put them in a plastic bag and you just drop them off at the location and no questions asked both counties have been very good we partner quite closely with our sheriffs and they will also take back days that they have senior citizen take back days with well they'll go to the senior citizen centers twice a month and do a take back there so they do makes it a little bit more convenient for them instead of trying to come out if need be and they can't get out if you call the sheriff's department they will go in they will pick it up from their home so they've been really significant in helping reduce the availability  easy to keep in your wallet or your pocket that have all of the cations the information on how to access them so we're trying to raise awareness about that too and that's really the recommended way to dispose of your medicines that's and to just be aware of if you only used a few pills you know not just leaving it to s meds in and lock them up and to keep them safe if you want to keep them in your home and you don't want to dispose of them or you can't other options because if you take the pills and you mix them with kitty litter or coffee grounds then you could dispose of them that way this way people won't see them and they're not going through your garbage and you definitely don't want to flush them down the in the toilet or down the sink because then it can get into your water systems and we don't want to do that sure you have that job out there for me thank you for sure because i didn't know that but really it's where we when we go to community events we try to find out from the public you know did you know about the drop box and so that is one area that we're we're constantly trying to increase  wareness because many people still do not know that these are available to them right away and then we're always looking to evaluate our initiatives and strategies you know to make sure there are outcomes and that's one of the ways like brenda was just s mentioning is that we do it through surveys to see you know do people know about them i mean we have these great great drop boxes but if nobody knows about them it doesn't it doesn't really matter so we know they are being utilized yes they're definitely they're filling up the police partners that we work with share information with us and so we know that they are being utilized that we still a little i think that more people need to know about them and learn and take advantage of it  program where people can take their documents and have them so it's a shredded securely and some towns have been able to also incorporate a mobile prescription take back as jerry was describing with the senior centers so it's part of that so people drive up sometimes you don't even have to get out your vehicle you know you have your shredding dispose of safely and your medications dispose of safely so it's a win win and that's been a successful approach and some many towns and again that's of the risks are while her eyes stop the parents what are some of the things that parents have to be aware off as it pertains to their kids we know what they need to dispose off their medication and so forth but if you talk a little bit more awareness that as parents what are some of the things that one of the signs of what are what can we do about it but i think the the best thing that a parent can do is start talking to their children young and often start talking with their younger about over the counter medications and their safety and that these are true medicines and they're not just to be taken lightly they're prescribed or you know you're using them for a reason you know we're a society looking always for that quick fix you know not feeling well here here something that tastes really good so we kind of condition our use our children from a very young age about these medications  and then there's you know alcohol and marijuana you know it doesn't need to it's very rare that you see somebody you know shooting up heroin without starting somewhere so you know the you know it's the natural progression of experimentation and quite often even starts with tobacco the nicotine and then they move on to the alcohol marijuana pills and then sends them to her so  you know that's one of the things i would you know talk to parents about is you know tell them that these pills are quite addictive they hit the same region of the brain as heroin does and if they're misused you know you can become addicted to them right or even worse absolutely so these are some of the things you look for as far as when they get older you know who are they hanging out with who are their friends are are their patterns changing or it's you know or their grades going down in school are they changing their friends what happens is after a while the pills become quite expensive and the addiction becomes quite strong that they will do anything to get those pills or to get the heroin so they will sell their mothers jewelry they will so there's so many things but i i would just say also for parents who do have a concern that their child might be using substances to just encourage them that it's ok to reach out for help  act and sometimes there's a feeling of shame and stigma that holds people back from from reaching out the exit and where i think at this point we're all in this problem together this is unfortunately reached epidemic proportions where it's really impacting our entire state and our nation so i would say also to parents to just not not let that hold them back and i'm reaching out for help when they need it and i think you're right these are really great tips for helping parents to be more aware in terms of behavioral terms of what are some of the signs in terms of someone is using you know in terms of sleep are they sleeping and are there other you know behaviors within responders now across the state carry it which is the you know police officers and it's usually administered uneasily so it's a great tool to really save somebody and get them to the hospital and the help that they need who is in the throes of addiction if you're trained in the use of nor can decide and you can have it and then use it when you when you you know when you're not faced in that unfortunate situation and then get them to the hospital get them opioid type pain killer or heroin so if they're exhibiting the signs of an overdose and it's not it won't do anything but it won't hurt them either exactly well it's it's really also providing those police officers with information so that it's not just giving that can and saving a life but it's also if there is addiction going on and oftentimes there is one when someone's at that point there is information and resources where you can get help so that you don't have to keep doing this and that if you do you want to talk about your start packing their packets that we created along with the prosecutor and the chief of detectives in our county  hundred county chief john krasinski he came up with the whole idea and it's called start and it's steps to action recovery and treatment so and he would who's been arrested or for a drug charge or is getting out of many different avenues that they can go to when they're hopefully ready to address their addiction so it's it reduces a barrier of getting people into treatment they're also now we're partnering with the hospital one hundred  medical center and that will be handing those out to patients that have come in with an overdose and talking to them a little bit about it and as brenda mentioned we are expanding in to somerset and in many counties  right sometimes that's a frustrating barrier when people are at that point where they are there is that small window sometimes where they might be willing to receive help so there are a lot of efforts even beyond the scope of the safe communities coalition that are going on to address that in the treatment realm another relationship can another thing that's that's available through a state grant is families have an opportunity to attend our can trainings in their local counties and receive  kit that they can have in their home so if there's someone in the home who is in recovery or at risk of relapse we're still actively using they have that resource available so that and along with that there also are linkages to treatment to help and everything that's over there to get the word over with the show the you tube information where people could actually watch that video yes so you know again i'm so grateful that you're here to be able to share this thing you know that people take away today is that these pain medications are could be very harmful they're prescribed for a reason but if they're abused can be very addicting something to talk about their doctors with when they're being  medications how parents should monitor if their kids are on these medications and to really just clean out your medicine cabinets really reduce that availability of people being able to get ahold of these medications and take them to a permanent