This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of National Institute on Drug Abuse^SM for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

National Drug & Alcohol Facts Week^SM is January 25-31, 2016 and is dedicated to hooking teenagers up with scientists and other experts in order to SHATTER THE MYTHS about substance abuse and addiction without the fear of judgment. As a mother of four boys, two who are teenagers and whose father was addicted to drugs and who passed away partially as a result of that use, talking to my boys about substance use and addiction as always been high on my list of priorities. However, this week I learned that I need a lot of help in the "talking to my teens" arena and I am glad that there are resources to help.

In 2010, National Drug & Alcohol Facts Week was launched, and it has become a huge success, with more than 1,500 community-based events held in all 50 states and some international locations last year! National Drug & Alcohol Facts Week^SM is sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. It's main focus is to bring teens together in a safe environment with scientists so they can get the real drug and alcohol facts instead of the candy coated version they might see in movies, magazines and TV. 

You might be like me and think that you are pretty proactive with your kids when it comes to talking about drug use, but man oh man was I wrong, and you probably are too. I took the National Drug & Alcohol IQ Challenge and you know what I found? I didn't know squat about the actual facts of drug use and addiction. Heck, there were drugs I didn't even know existed. How can I help educate my children about drug use and addiction when I don't even have the facts myself?

Luckily, there are plenty of resources available online via the National Drug &Alcohol Facts Week website that can help you become educated and help inform your teens of the facts. For instance, I am currently working with the NIDA Family Checkup resource to help learn research-based skills that can help keep my boys drug-free.

Want to do the same? Be sure to look into a community-based event near you, or tune in online for drug and alcohol facts to help your teens stay clean!