One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice —
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.

“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.

But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do —
determined to save
the only life you could save.

On July 2, Ken Cuccinelli, Attorney General of Virginia, held a press conference to launch, Lock Up Your Meds, a public safety announcement campaign, exposing prescription drug abuse among youth.   Cuccinelli appeals to families to safely store their meds under lock and key, so that “our medicine cabinets don’t become our neighborhood drug suppliers.”

Ann Reardon, a prosecutor with the AG’s office, kicked off the program by relating the powerful story of her 17 year old son, Robert, who died two years ago after suspected abuse of prescription meds.  She is working to increase awareness of this type of abuse in an effort to help prevent other families from suffering such an unspeakable loss.
http://www.nbc12.com/story/22746519/campaign-encourages-locking-up-prescription-drugs

As a co-founder and board member of the JHW Foundation, Roz Watkins was invited to attend the launch.  She and her husband, Johnny, also know firsthand, the agony of losing a child to alcohol and pain killers. www.jhwfoundation.org

I’m thankful Roz and Ann are brainstorming ways in which the Foundation may be able to support the State’s new initiatives.