Campaign Alerts Parents of Generation Rx to Culture of “Pharming”Among Teens

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, May 16th – The Partnership for a Drug-Free America®, with support from the Consumer Healthcare Products Association and its member companies, today launched the first national prescription and over-the-counter medicine abuse education campaign.

The campaign, which will be released in both English and Spanish, speaks directly to parents by alerting them that their own homes are easily accessible sources for teens to obtain and abuse these medications. The campaign is comprised of hard-hitting television, newspaper, magazine and radio messages, a comprehensive online component and is supplemented by informational brochures to help parents get the conversation started with their teen. A multi-faceted public relations effort will provide additional media support for the campaign.

Steve Pasierb, president & CEO of the Partnership, said “The message of this campaign can be summed up in three words: educate, communicate and safeguard. Educate yourself about the medications kids are abusing. Communicate with your kids and dispel the notion – for yourself as well as for your kids – that these medicines can be safely abused. And safeguard your medications by learning which ones can be abused, limit access to them and keep track of the quantities you have in your home. Make sure your friends do the same.”

Teens Think Intentionally Abusing Medicines to Get High is ‘Safer’ Than Using Illegal Drugs

The launch of the campaign comes as the Partnership releases data from its 2005 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study. Top-line findings from this nationally projectable tracking study show the culture of “pharming” – abusing a host of chemical products and medicines intentionally to get high – has taken root among America’s teen population; in fact, an alarming number of today’s teenagers are more likely to have abused Rx and OTC medications than a variety of illegal drugs like Ecstasy, cocaine, crack and meth.

The study found two key factors are driving this behavior: many teens have a misperception that intentionally abusing Rx and OTC medicines is not harmful, and teens say there is easy access to these drugs through a medicine cabinet at home or at a friend’s house or via the Internet.

The new campaign seeks to educate parents because Partnership research shows that kids who report learning a lot about the risks of abuse from their parents are up to 50 percent less likely to engage in the behavior as those who don’t. Most parents are either unaware or in denial about their kids’ vulnerability and exposure to the intentional abuse of Rx and OTC medicines. The campaign aims to educate parents with dramatic television spots such as “The Hood,” which shows a teen girl swiping from the medicine cabinet prescription medicines that her mother brought home. Three “Guess What” radio commercials feature a teen boy and girl telling mom and dad not to worry that they’re using drugs like pot or cocaine to get high – they’re using what they find in the medicine cabinet.

The Rx and OTC education effort will be a priority campaign for the Partnership, which will work directly with national and local media to gain significant placements for campaign messages. Television messages from the campaign will run nationally across all Comcast stations throughout the summer. Comcast will donate approximately $3 million in advertising media exposure to support the campaign. In addition, Univision will also be lending extensive radio support to Spanish-language radio messages targeting the Hispanic community via Univision’s national radio network. To further Univision’s efforts, new radio commercials are currently being developed in Spanish.

The campaign also features an innovative online component consisting of unique and engaging websites focused on the dangers of abusing cough medicine/dextromethorphan (dextromethorphan, or DXM, is the active ingredient in cough medicine). The Partnership’s website features comprehensive online content on the abuse of prescription drugs. Original online content created specifically for parents and teens on the abuse of cough medicine can be found at www.drugfree.org/Parent/ and www.dxmstories.com/.

All advertising for the campaign was created pro bono by advertising agencies Grey, DDB Chicago, Lumina Films and Dieste Harmel & Partners (Spanish-language), along with a number of production companies that donated their time and effort. All actors appear in campaign ads pro bono through the generosity of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

“From talking with consumers, we at Grey know this growing problem is not even on parents’ radar,” said Mark Schwatka, EVP and executive creative director of Grey Advertising. “This campaign has been designed to not only create awareness of the dangers of abusing prescription drugs and over-the- counter medications, but also to start a much-needed dialogue between parents and teens.”