The charge filed Wednesday against a 26-year-old Albert Lea man for his alleged role in the overdose death of an 18-year-old Albert Lea student is bringing attention to the seriousness of prescription drug abuse.

Prescription drug abuse is the use of a medication without a prescription or in a way other than what was prescribed.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, an estimated 52 million people — 20 percent of those age 12 and older — have used prescription drugs for nonmedical reasons at least once in their lifetimes. The institute says one in 12 high school seniors nationwide reported nonmedical use of the prescription pain reliever Vicodin in 2010 and one in 20 reported abusing OxyContin.

Even worse, unintentional overdose deaths involving opioid pain relievers have quadrupled since 1999, and by 2007, outnumbered those involving heroin and cocaine, according to the institute.

Though many medications can be abused, the most commonly abused are the following:

• Opioids, which are typically prescribed to treat pain

• Central nervous system depressants, which are used to treat anxiety and sleep disorders

• Stimulants, which are prescribed to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

According to the website for Substance Use in Minnesota, Freeborn County students are less likely than the state average to report past 30-day alcohol use, but more likely to report binge drinking, cigarette smoking and misuse of prescription drugs.

Five percent of eighth-graders in Freeborn County reported prescription drug misuse in the last 30 days in a survey in 2013, along with 8 percent of ninth-graders and 19 percent of 11th-graders in 2013.

Drug addiction of any kind can be damaging to individuals and families.

Parents, educate yourself and your children about the dangers of prescription drug abuse.

It is serious, and it can affect even our own children.