HERSHEY, Pa. -- Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital and the Susan P. Byrnes Health Center will host a Drugs 101 program from 6 to 8 p.m. on Sept. 23. The event, which will take place in the hospital’s Treehouse Café, is free and open to parents and teenagers in the community.

Parents will participate in the “Drugs 101: Parents Need to Know” presentation, which discusses the various forms of drugs; peer pressures students face to use drugs; synthetic drugs that kids are inhaling as early as elementary school and that can’t always be detected on drug tests; how the addictive personality works and how even a brief experimentation with drugs can affect the brain; and resources available in the community to help.

Teens will participate in roundtable discussion and demonstrations showing the realities of living with addiction. Students will visit tables to hear about topics including rehab options, addicted babies, probation and parole. Participants will get a card stamped at each station and enter the completed cards in a drawing for a door prize.

Pre-registration for this free program is available at PennStateHershey.org/community.