Do you have a potential teen drug abuse situation fermenting in your own home?

Check the medicine cabinet — one of the most accessible routes for leading to abuse.

A study on the National Library of Medicine (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8442636) reveals a startling statistic: The “strongest predicator of lifetime opioid dependence was having a prescription opioid in the family medicine cabinet at age 14.”

In fact, the study reports, about 10.3 million people in the United States 12 or older reported using a prescription opioid for non-medical purposes — and 13 percent of those persons in an another report met criteria for opioid abuse or dependence — and much of this abuse began in a home bathroom.

That’s a harsh reality, especially for our teenagers, but parents can do something about it: Keep track of your opioid medications and clear out the medicine cabinet of old or un-needed medications.

The DEA suggests that all of us should periodically clean out our medicine cabinets and help prevent dug misuse before it starts — and especially with stats such as this: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that 14,675 people died last year of prescription opioid poisoning or overdose.

The next question, what to do safely with those medications we discard, has traditionally been answered by the DEA’s National Prescription Take Back Day, where old medications can be dropped off with no questions asked. But for many of us, one or two such days each year are easy to miss.

Now, the Drug Enforcement Administration has partnered with facilities on a new campaign: Every Day is Take Back Day. Some pharmacies in North Alabama, such as those found in Publix or Walmart stores, offer the service. Other resources include most police departments and sheriff’s offices. To find those and other locations, visit the DEA website (www.dea.gov/), or click to https://apps.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/pubdispsearch/spring/main?execution=e1s1.

Drop off your old, unneeded or unused medications at one of the pharmacies, hospitals and businesses working to help clean out medicine cabinets throughout the year.

As of now, there’s no reason to delay doing so.