About Stop Medicine Abuse
Stop Medicine Abuse is a national prevention campaign from the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA), created to raise awareness about the dangers of teen misuse of OTC cough medicines containing DXM. Through education, resources, and community partnerships, the campaign empowers parents and advocates to recognize the risks and take meaningful action.
About the campaign
In 2004, national surveys began to track abuse of OTC cough medicine among teens. Experts predicted, “abuse among adolescents most likely will increase, as the drug is relatively easy to obtain and inexpensive. Moreover, adolescents perceive the risk in abuse of the medicine as low.”
This was our call to action.
To fight the potential rise of teen DXM abuse, CHPA launched the Five Moms: Stopping Cough Medicine Abuse initiative to raise awareness about teen DXM abuse and offer peer-to-peer guidance on how to prevent it. Following the success of the Five Moms campaign, CHPA created StopMedicineAbuse.org. The Stop Medicine Abuse campaign continues to provide valuable resources on preventing teen medicine abuse, among other risky behaviors. Our work has reduced abuse rates but continuing to raise awareness of the issue and how to prevent it is critical to keeping rates down.
About CHPA
Founded in 1881, CHPA represents the leading manufacturers of OTC medicines. CHPA and its members are involved in a multi-pronged effort to curb the abuse of OTC cough medicines containing DXM with the help of a host of partners. Included in those other concerned organizations are The Partnership to End Addiction and the CADCA.
In addition to preventing the abuse of OTC medicines, CHPA and its members also work to provide information on the safe and responsible use of medications through the CHPA Educational Foundation.