Liz Tennent, project director, and Teresa Casmus, owner/pharmacist of The Medicine Shoppe, agreed that May was a great time to start a sticker campaign. Custom labels and stickers for pharmacy bags is really helping bring attention to the cause.
All the store bags distributed to customers include the YSUP logo, website and phone number. They hope to reach parents, youth and a larger audience who will be informed and engaged with YSUP Rowan.
May 12-18 was National Substance Use Awareness Week, which helped in jump-starting the sticker campaign into the summer months.“Research clearly shows that summer is a risky time for youth substance use,” Tennent said in a press release. “An average of 5,000 youth will smoke cigarettes for the first time; more than 11,000 teens ages 12 to 17 will use alcohol for the first time; and over 4,500 youth start using marijuana for the first time in June and July.”
Those statistics are from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s “Monthly Variation in Substance Use Initiation Among Adolescents.”
“Youth really need to grasp and understand the impact of substance abuse,” Casmus said. “It can preclude you from many professions and opportunities. You will be required to complete a background check and, in many cases, random drug testing. If you have a record of substance use, it will greatly limit your choices for the present and for your future.”
