Parent Corps - A New Approach to substance abuse prevention
A new presidential initiative operating under the same principles as a the Peace Corps, the Parent Corps is aimed at mobilizing parents to help curb drug youth among youth. Ten states have been designated as Parent Corps recipients for 2004 through the National Families in Action organization.
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Prevention Basics For Families – For the month of February only the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information will offer Prevention Basics for Families free of charge. This is a kit with practical ideas about rearing healthy, drug-free children and helps parents inform their children about the effects and dangers of specific drugs. For more information: http://ncadi.samhsa.gov/promos/there/default.aspex. Order toll free at 800-729-6686 and request inventory number PBKIT.
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Drug-Free Communities Support Program Grants – Approximately 180 grants of up to $100,000 each will be awarded to community coalitions working to prevent and reduce substance abuse among youth. Deadline: March 26, 2004
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St. Louis Drug Court is Worth It
A study on the effectiveness of the 7-year-old drug court in St. Louis, Mo., finds that the program’s benefits far outweigh its costs. The study found that costs benefits were reflected in everything from the graduates’ higher wages and taxes paid to significantly lower costs for health care and mental health. Researchers found that over four years after drug court or probation, net savings totaled $7,700 per drug court participant, or $1.7 million for all 219 graduates. For each dollar in drug court costs during that time, taxpayers realized $6.32 in savings.
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Substance Abuse Tools for the Faith Community
An article in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports on training for the faith community on how to identify people struggling with substance abuse. As a result of the training, faith leaders now know how to screen, do a brief intervention, and offer referral resources. The training was conducted by GRIP (Gallatin Responsive Interventions Partnership), a countywide organization.
See also:
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Availability of Drug Court Grants
Drug courts serving juveniles, adults, families, single jurisdictions, and those operating statewide can apply for drug court grants. The due date for each is February 27.
For more information:
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Understanding Substance Abuse Prevention: Toward the 21st Century: A Primer on Effective Programs
This almost 100 page primer contains much good information. It includes descriptions of 8 model programs, provides a synthesis of effective prevention programs, and examines risk and protective factors in the individual, the family, the school, the peer group, the community, and society. Charts, graphs, and tables too.
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Core Competencies for Clergy and Other pastoral Ministers in Addressing Alcohol and Drug Dependence and the Impact on Family Members
In spite of its long title, this new publication from SAMHSA provides the basis for educational segments in seminary courses to train clergy and pastoral ministers about drug and alcohol abuse and its impacts on families. The National Association for Children of Alcoholics and the Johnson Institute partnered with SAMHSA to produce the guide. The core competencies identified in the guide include, but are not limited to, these:
- Be aware of the generally accepted definition of alcohol and drug dependence and the societal stigma attached to it.
- Be knowledgeable about the signs of alcohol and drug dependence, characteristics of withdrawal, effects on the individual and the family, and characteristics of the stages of recovery.
- Be aware that possible indicators of the disease may include, among others: marital conflict, family violence (physical, emotional, and verbal), suicide, hospitalization, or encounters with the criminal justice system.
- Be aware of the appropriate pastoral interactions with the addicted person, family system, and affected children.
- Have a general knowledge of and, where possible exposure to the 12-step programs (AA, NA, Al-Anon, Nar-Anon, Alateen, ACOA, etc.) and other groups.
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Methamphetamine in the Heartland
Fox Butterfield writes in the NYT about methamphetamine manufacture, sale and use in the rural Midwest . Methamphetamine use and crime are overrunning rural counties in Wyoming, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, North Dakota and the Texas Panhandle according to law enforcement officials. In Lovell, Wyoming, a small town of 2200 people, methamphetamine use is now more than twice the national average.
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Binge Drinking – Child Trends Databank reports that over the past decade binge drinking has remained relatively constant with modest apparent declines. Some statistics from the report:
- White students in the 12th grade are almost three times as likely as black students to engage in binge drinking. Hispanic students fall in between.
- By 12th grade males are much more likely than females to binge drink.
Daily Cigarette Use - Daily smoking fell by one-half among both 8th grade students and 10th grade students between 1996 and 2003. Other smoking statistics:
- Boys and girls are about equally likely to smoke cigarettes.
- Whites have the highest levels to smoking, more than twice those of black students. Hispanic students’ usage falls in between.
- Daily smoking increases with age. Only 5% of 8th graders reported daily cigarette use in 2003. By 12th grade 16% reported daily cigarette use.
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An Aggressive Retail Liquor Store Campaign against Underage Sales
Brown Jug Liquor in Anchorage, Alaska pursues $1,000 civil claims against people who try to buy booze illegally. It seeks civil penalties against youth who walk in without a parent or guardian. Big yellow signs on Brown Jug’s front door warn kids to stay away.
Since 1998, Brown Jug has demanded $1,000 payments from more than 900 underage youths who tried to buy something – from beer to cigarettes to soft drinks.
Now it has added an alcohol awareness campaign. Anyone who goes through the new program will get a break on the civil penalty. The store will seek $300 instead of $1,000. Participants will have to pay another $290 for the course, which consists of 16 hours of classroom sessions.
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Project ALERT
An evaluation of Project ALERT, a school-based anti-drug curriculum, finds that the program helps prevent drug use among high-risk students. RAND evaluated the program and the findings show that the curriculum is effective in preventing or reducing marijuana and cigarette use among eighth-graders. ALERT also reduces use of alcohol among middle-school students and helps regular smokers reduce their cigarette use.
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Teen Athletes Use of Steroids
In an article in the New York Times on the use of steroids by teen athletes looks at one young Texas baseball player’s suicide following his withdrawal from steroids and his father’s attempts to bring attention to the subject of steroid abuse in high school, which has thus far been largely unexamined as it applies to high school athletes.
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Insurance Parity for Mental Health and Alcohol Treatment
A policy brief from Ensuring Solutions to Alcohol Problems includes this information on parity for alcohol treatment:
- An analysis of 11 state studies on parity shows that its cost to insurers is negligible and raises annual premiums just 0.2 percent.
- The State of Oregon found that it saves $5.62 in tax-supported health, corrections and welfare costs for every state dollar spent on people who complete treatment.
- Parity increases the number of people who receive treatment, there by reducing their long-term costs to the state.
- A North Carolina legislative report concluded: “Studies from several states have consistently shown that appropriate treatment of chemical dependency results in a significant reduction in medical claims, absenteeism, and disability; an increase in productivity; and a healthier and safer environment for all employees.”
- A 2001 study by the national Center on Addiction and Substance Abuses (CASA) on the impact of substance abuse nationally found that each American pays $227 per year in state taxes to deal with the burden of substance abuse and addiction. The CASA report said “The brunt of failure to prevent and treat substance abuse and the cost of coping with the wreckage of this problem falls most heavily on the backs of governors and state legislatures across America .”
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LEAP – Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
LEAP is a non-profit organization created by a group of current and former members of law enforcement who support drug regulation rather than prohibition. LEAP believes the United States ’ drug policies have failed and that to save lives, lower the rate of addiction, and conserve tax dollars, we must end drug prohibition. LEAP advocates a system of regulation and control of drugs. The organization’s members are former drug warriors who speak out about the excesses and abuses of current drug policy and the failure of the war on drugs.
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BJS Updates on Drug and Crime Data
The Bureau of Justice Statistics has updated the Drugs & Crime Facts section of its website with information from 21 recent statistical publications. Includes juvenile drug arrest trends and drug and alcohol use by high school seniors.
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Information and Resources about Ecstasy and Methamphetamine (Look at the box to the right side of your screen and click on Ecstasy and Meth: New Resources for Parents)
Partnership for a Drug-Free America is launching a methamphetamine and ecstasy health education campaign designed to provide parents and teens with information and resources about these two drugs. The campaign is being conducted in association with the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Consumer Healthcare Products Association. Click on this link to go to specific articles and information about each.
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In Their Own Words
“Kids don’t just wake up one day and say, I’m going to be bad.”
“You hear about violence everywhere – on the news, the radio. You can’t really run from violence – it will always catch you.”
“Drugs are not in one place. They’re everywhere.”
“Adults don’t talk to us enough.”
“When I go to the movies, I can’t tell you how many people I see die. You get so you don’t think it matters anymore.”
The Attorney General of the State of Maryland , in a series of forums held in every county of Maryland , asked the children of the state about what is right and what is wrong in their lives. What they had to say is very good: pithy, to the point, wonderfully frank, and although sometimes despairing, mostly positive.
The report is organized in sections, Bullying and Discrimination; Tobacco, Alcohol and Drug Abuse; After School and Evenings; Media Violence and the Internet; and Counselors, Parents and Mentors. Each begins with student comments followed by what the research says and ending with recommendations. Altogether, a fine document and worth your time to look over at least the executive summary.
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Pennsylvania Recovery High School Opens Soon
The school is designed to provide teens with follow-up care while enabling them to continue their education. Previously, students simply returned to school following residential treatment, into the same situation and environment where their addictions began. The school is due to open in November. About 19 recovery schools operate in 11 other states.
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COMBAT: An Anti-Drug Sales Tax in Jackson County , Missouri (Community-Backed Anti-Drug Tax)
In 1989 Jackson County, Missouri was the first US jurisdiction to enact a sales tax to fund abroad-based attack on drug abuse. In 1995 residents of the county voted more than two to one to renew the tax for seven years. By two to one they extended it again August this year.
The tax generates about $18 million each year, divided roughly into thirds, and is used to support programs falling under three major objectives:
- To jail dangerous criminals and drug dealers
- To treat nonviolent offenders who honestly want to get off drugs, and
- To prevent children from ever experimenting with drugs.
Read more about COMBAT at these two links:
++++++++++ Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility The National Academies Institute of Medicine and National Research Council has released a nationwide strategy to combat underage drinking. The strategy requires shared responsibility and action to improve compliance with existing laws. It calls for cooperation from all levels of government, alcohol manufacturers and retailers, the entertainment industry, of parents and other adults in a community. The report was received enthusiastically by MADD and was almost immediately dismissed by the beverage industry. While the entire report cannot be downloaded from the National Academies site, the Executive Summary (12 pages) can be downloaded fairly painlessly one page at a time and it can be read online at no charge. ++++++++++ Ice Storm: Epidemic of the Islands When I included a link to one article on ice from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin two weeks ago I didn’t realize that I had hold of the tail of the dog and that there was a lot more information on crystal meth in an exhaustive two-week series in the Star-Bulletin. This link will take to you a page from the paper and on that page a box with the title: Ice Storm: Epidemic of the Islands . Every line in that box will link you to an additional article on the subject. This series is a very thorough treatment of a subject of increasing interest to people across the country as methamphetamines return yet again. If you’d like a copy of all the articles but don’t want to spend the time, printer ink, and paper it will take to make it, send me an email (with your mailing address of course) and I’ll send you a copy of mine. Below you’ll find more information on methamphetamines and a publication on drug testing. ++++++++++ |
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