6 Reasons To Watch This Other, Other Wahlberg Movie With Your Teen

You know that little person living your home who probably doesn't know how to use the washing machine? No, not your father-in-law (but you may need to straighten him out too), your teenaged kid. Yeah, the guy or girl that still needs you to make doctor's appointments on his behalf may be sneaking into your medicine cabinet chasing some kind of high. Per the Partnership For Drug Free Kids' Medicine Abuse Project, 25% of teens report abusing/misusing prescription drugs and it's the poison of choice for 12 and 13-year olds. “Yikes!” is an appropriate response but talking to them about it immediately is an even more appropriate one. 

Yes, talking to your son or daughter about not abusing painkillers may be even less comfortable than the birds and bees convo but it's an even more important one. You may be saving a life. Millennium Health and the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation have started a campaign called “Drop Them Off” to educate us all on the dangers of misuse of prescription medications and, you know, let us all know how to get rid unused pills and ointments and tonics. 

And because it's America's favorite Bostonian acting family, the Wahlbergs put together a short film about it. If Only focuses on the very real and very awful impact that teenage drug abuse has on entire families. Enjoy the trailer below and find more info about what you can do to help at DropThemOff.com.

Disclosure: a good friend does some work with Donnie Wahlberg and Jenny McCarthy and asked me to check out a short film near and dear to them about teen prescription drug abuse. Thought I'd pass the word along. 

1You’re A Wahlberg Fan

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No one blames you; they’re great. You can’t help shaking your hips to “Good Vibrations,” you've been in line for Ted 2 since Entourage came out and you’ve been praying that they open their burger place in your neighborhood. Now, you can get in on the ground floor of the newest Wahlberg: Jeffrey. He stars as Isaac in If Only.

2You Don’t Have All Day…

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And you don’t need to. The movie runs 30 minutes and isn’t the kind of preach-fest that we’ve come to expect from after-school specials. Throw in another half hour of dialogue with your teen and you may’ve saved a life in a shade under an hour.

3Peer pressure

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Isaac starts abusing prescription meds to be cool. Who hasn’t, even as a responsible adult, done something dumb to fit in? How’s this for positive peer pressure: One of the most important jobs you do as a parent is teach your kid how to say “no” to something dangerous or against their value system. Here’s a handy conversation guide to get that talk started.

4Teen drug abuse can start at home

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Spoiler Alert: you can’t watch your kids all the time, even in your own home. If Only’s Isaac starts his habit by raiding his mom’s medicine cabinet. The Partnership For Drug Free Kids’ Medicine Abuse Project reports that 4 in 10 teens who abuse prescription drugs got them from a parent’s bathroom.  And 73% of teens believe it’s easy to obtain prescription medicine from their parent’s medicine cabinet, according to the Partnership Attitude Tracking Study sponsored by MetLife Foundation. Here are three ways to safeguard your home.

5This is a real life

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Prescription drug abuse doesn’t discriminate by race, gender or social strata. According to the CDC, 12,000 Americans died of prescription medication overdoses in 2012. If 1,000 easily preventable deaths occurred per month around anything else there would already be a national dialogue about it. Start a dialogue at home. Now.

6It’s not going to fix itself

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A recent Time cover story highlighted that 9.4 million Americans take opioids for chronic pain, with an estimated 2.1 million of them addicted. Starting this conversation today can prevent your family from being one of those statistics. Again, sit down with your kid, watch at DropThemOff.com/IfOnly and have a quick talk about these real, avoidable dangers.