This Little Bottle Just Might Save Your Teen’s Life

This post was written in partnership with Safe RX. 

You can’t read the news without coming across evidence of America’s opioid epidemic. So many crimes these days are committed either under the influence or in pursuit of these drugs, and their reach extends beyond the newspapers, right into our own lives. Most of us know families who’ve lost loved ones to overdose or spent significant chunks of their life savings on costly rehab programs for their children.

As a parent, it terrifies me that this crisis has its roots in our own homes.

Consider this:

• 80% of heroin users start with a prescription opioid.
• 90% of abusers start in their teens
• The number one source for teen opioid abuse is pilfering.
• 62% of teens cite ease of access in family medicine cabinets as their reason for abusing prescription drugs.

 
By and large, kids are getting pills from their own family’s medicine cabinets and those of their friends’ parents. And if you think your own child would never do such a thing, let me gently suggest that you very possibly might be wrong. Prescription pills are the drug of choice at parties, and to a teenager, popping a few pills from Mom’s nightstand drawer may not seem like that big of a deal. What they can’t know is how quickly things can get out of hand.

With this in mind, I have for years hidden any painkillers my family is prescribed. I consider them to be a real potential danger, and I feel a responsibility both as a parent and as a homeowner to keep them out of reach of those who shouldn’t be taking them. Now, for the first time, I’ve found a product that addresses this issue directly:
 

 

The Safe RX Locking Pill Bottle lets you secure prescription drugs inside a bottle with a 4-digit passcode, which is preloaded onto the bottle before it’s shipped to you. Each bottle costs $9.99 — and it could ultimately save your child’s life. Obviously, it’s perfect for parents with curious little ones in the house —  Many of us have kids who figured out how to open ‘child-resistant’ medicine bottles before they were even three years old. But I’m REALLY loving this innovation for those of us who have tweens and teens in the house. I believe $10 is a small price to pay to make sure you’re not inadvertently contributing to the opioid crisis in your very own home.

“Well, my teen would never steal pills from our medicine cabinet,” I can hear some of you saying to yourselves. I totally get it — I’d like to think this is true of my own kids. But think for a minute about all the times when your kids’ friends are inside your home, or when housekeepers, painters, and maintenance workers come over — Are you able to keep an eye on all of your visitors 100% of the time? I’m guessing the answer is no. Safe RX bottles make it impossible for anyone to even be tempted to steal a few pills from your cabinet.

Safe RX bottles are also perfect for your college students’ medications. Dorms are not the most secure environments, so these bottles can help ensure your student doesn’t lose any medication to pilfering.

You can order your own Safe RX Locking Pill Bottle here. Even better, the company is offering a 20% discount to Suburban Turmoil readers. Just use the code SUMMERFAM20 at checkout.