Everyone has opportunities in their lives to make a difference, and I’ve been experiencing a few of my own lately. Not long ago, I hosted a town hall meeting in my community on medicine abuse, and it was a great event! I was proud to help raise awareness of this issue among parents and teachers.

Recently, I also had another opportunity to reach parents, educators, and nurses around the country. I was invited to participate in the Medicine Abuse Project‘s “Hope for Recovery” webinar, presented by the Partnership at DrugFree.org and A&E Network. The webinar focused on how teens can recover from medicine abuse and included R. Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control; Jeff VanVonderen from the A&E series Intervention; and a young adult in recovery from medicine abuse.

I hope that parents, educators, and nurses around the country take this opportunity to learn more about teen medicine abuse and most importantly, how they can help prevent it.