CHPA's DXM anti-abuse campaign realizing significant results

 

 

WASHINGTON - The Consumer Healthcare Products Association recently posted this YouTube video outlining the progress the industry has realized in combatting teenage abuse of cough/cold medicines containing dextromethorphan. 

 

The industry has taken a three-pronged approach to combatting cough medicine abuse - educate and empower parents to discuss drug abuse with their children, restrict access to DXM-containing products to adults over the age of 18 and connect directly to teenagers through social media on the dangers of DXM abuse. 

 

According to the update, CHPA and its partners have successfully generated 2 billion media impressions among parents. Children of parents who discuss drug abuse with the family are half as likely to abuse drugs. 

 

And to date, the combination of nine states that have placed age restrictions on the purchase of DXM combined with several retailers who won't sell cough medicines to underage minors as a matter of corporate policy have helped block DXM sales in approximatey 90% of the U.s.

 

Finally, teenagers have shared or interacted with CHPA-driven anti-DXM-abuse content more than 15 million times. 

 

The concentrated efforts of CHPA and their partners on this initiative have helped reduce the number of teens who have experimented with abusing DXM for a high. According to the latest reports, only 3.1% of teens abused DXM in 2015, compared to 5.4% who reported abusing DXM in 2006.