Five Moms Take Stand Against Cough Medicine Abuse!

Answering the call from the nations cough medicine makers, moms launch grassroots campaign to help parents fight teen medicine abuse Washington, D.C., May 9, 2007 Five moms, from different walks of life and from all across the country, today launched a grassroots campaign to stop the dangerous trend of teens abusing cough medicines to get high. The campaign, developed by the nations cough-medicine makers, is designed to alert parents to a growing substance-abuse problem that most dont even know exists. Substance-abuse experts agree that education is the key to preventingand stoppingsuch abuse, said Linda A. Suydam, president of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA), the association representing over-the-counter medicine manufacturers responsible for creating the campaign. Parents have trusted us with the health of their families for more than 50 years. Now its our turn to alert them to a problem that every family should know about. At the heart of the Five Moms Campaign are five exceptional women, each dedicated to spreading the word about the dangers of cough medicine abuse across the country and in her own community. CHPA conducted a national search to find the Five Moms. They are: Ģ Julie Bermant, a pediatric nurse practitioner from Massachusetts Ģ Blaise Brooks, an accountant from California Ģ Christy Crandell, the California mother of a former cough-medicine abuser Ģ Becky Dyer, a D.A.R.E. officer and deputy sheriff from Kansas Ģ Hilda Morales, an educator from Texas Recent studies have spotlighted cough medicine abuse as an alarming trend among young people, who intentionally take large amounts of cough medicine to get a high from the active ingredient dextromethorphan. Data collected by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America show that one in 10, or 2.4 million young people, reports having abused dextromethorphan-containing medicines to get high. The Five Moms Campaign will use the very same tactics medicine abusers are using: spreading and promoting information on the Internet. The Five Moms goal is to get the word out to as many parents as possible that cough medicine abuse is happening in their homes, and that the Internet is a driving force. The centerpiece of the campaign is http://www.FiveMoms.com http://www.FiveMoms.com , a web site where parents can find information about cough medicine abuse, read blog entries from the Five Moms and occasional special guest moms, and link to sites that have additional resources for fighting cough medicine abuse. FiveMoms.com is a place parents can go to learn how to spot the warning signs, as well as what to do if they suspect their child is abusing. In conjunction with todays launch, the Five Moms will release a short viral video via e-mail to their friends and family, with the goal of the video reaching a million moms by the end of the year. Another feature of the campaign is a special community on Gather.com, a social networking site for parents, where they can go to share their perspectives on cough medicine abuse and benefit from the experiences of others. We joined together to protect our kids and to make parents stronger, said Five Mom Hilda Morales. If we do this right, every parent in America will know about this problem. The Internet is heavily populated with web sites and online communities, including MySpace, YouTube, LiveJournal, and Facebook, that feature detailed instructions on how to abuse cough medicine, as well as videos of kids experiencing the high. Some web sites even sell the raw, unfinished form of the ingredient dextromethorphan, which can be deadly, to anyone with a credit card and a shipping address. The people who promote cough medicine abuse online are Internet predators, plain and simple, said Five Mom and Deputy Sheriff Becky Dyer. The teenagers who glorify this abuse on the Internet have no idea what danger theyre putting themselves and others in. And the people selling raw dextromethorphan to our kids just dont care. The Five Moms Campaign is part of a long-term multi-media effort by CHPA to educate parents and teens about cough medicine abuse. CHPA has partnered with the Partnership for a Drug-Free America on public service announcements and bilingual educational materials, and the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America on a toolkit for community leaders. CHPA also is working with D.A.R.E. America to incorporate information about cough medicine abuse into its school curricula. Our member companies have worked tirelessly to educate parents about the potential for abuse, said CHPA President Suydam. The Five Moms campaign takes this effort to an entirely new level. To learn more about the Five Moms Campaign, visit http://www.FiveMoms.com http://www.FiveMoms.com More about Christy Crandell: Christy Crandell is an author and drug awareness advocate from Lincoln , Calif. Dedicated to educating parents about the issue of teen drug abuse, Crandell serves as the parent outreach coordinator for the Rocklin Unified School District . In addition, she is a teacher with The Parent Project, a national parenting program for parents of teens exhibiting out-of-control or destructive behavior, and works with her county on several grants for programs on teen alcohol and drug abuse. Crandells passion for the issue of teen drug abuse comes from personal experience. Her son Ryan, now 22-years-old, is serving a 13-year sentence in Folsom State Prison for an armed robbery he committed while high on over-the-counter cough medicine and marijuana. For Crandell, sharing her story with parents and hopefully helping them avoid her familys tragedy is her mission. Her book, Lost & Found: A Mother and Son Find Victory over Teen Drug Addiction, tells her familys story and provides important information and resources about drug abuse for parents. Crandell says that while Ryans actions put a tremendous strain on her family, including her other son, Justin, who is a 19-year-old freshman at the University of California-David, she is thankful that their experiences have helped her family become stronger, more tolerant, and more compassionate. Christys greatest hope is that her work with the Five Moms campaign will prevent other parents from having to get their education the hard way, as she did. She has developed a web site designed to help educate parents about the realities of teen drug abuse and give them tools necessary to prevent other children from falling victim to cough medicine abuse. More about Virginia A. Cox: Virginia Cox leads the Consumer Healthcare Product Associations (CHPAs) Communications department, and oversees their media relations, educational program development, and outreach efforts. She lives in Potomac , Maryland with her husband and her two sons, ages five and sixteen months. Virginia works full-time to educate parents on the safe use of medicines. As a working mother, Virginia likes to spend her free time reading and taking hikes with her kids. Prior to joining CHPA in 2003, Cox spent 10 years working for FDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). She was the director of outreach and strategic initiatives for the commissioner at FDA from 1999 to 2001 and later served as a consultant to the commissioners office on regulatory processes and public policy-related issues. Cox was appointed as special assistant to the secretary at HHS, where she served for seven years before moving to FDA. During her tenure at HHS, her responsibilities included strategic planning, issues management, and policy development. She ran presidential advisory committees, developed national public/private partnerships on major health initiatives, and coordinated policy and outreach programs across the department. Cox is a member of the Maryland Bar. She received her B.A. from the University of California – Los Angeles and her J.D. from Georgetown University School of Law.