Parents taking their children to the movies at Clark Theater might have noticed an advertisement encouraging them to talk with their children about drugs.

“The videos are three, 8-minute videos,” Children’s Policy Council Coalition Director Susan Short said. “It talks to you about how to talk to your children about drug prevention. It shows parents how to talk to kids at younger ages.”

Short said the movies are really effective videos.

“The movies will be interchanged for three months,” he said.

The movies are being paid for through the Drug Free Communities Support Program.

A focus of the coalition is marijuana and prescription pill abuse, but it is also working to combat underage drinking.

The group has already mailed postcards to parents dealing with drug use in teens.

“We need to get to parents,” Short said. “Data shows that not everyone is receiving information at home.”

Short said that the perception that marijuana use is safe is filtering down to teenagers and families.

In April, the CPCC announced that underage drinking remains the principal youth-related drug issue in the county.

“We have many drug issues with our youth, but underage drinking continues to be the biggest problem in our area,” Short said.

Another method of combatting drug and alcohol use in the county has been sobriety and compliance checks at stores selling alcoholic beverages.

“We want do whatever we can to educate our parents,” Short said. “And we want to make sure we are working to deter drugs and alcohol from the hands of our youth.”