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School District Offers Free Drug Test Kits to Parents
Parents of seventh-graders at the Oak Hills school district in Delhi, Ohio who attend PTA open house meetings this week and next will be offered free drug-testing kits. Part of a new national campaign called Project 7th Grade that aims to get parents of adolescents talking about the consequences of drug abuse before their children enter the age when they’re most likely to try drugs. More information on Project 7th Grade
++++++++++ 2006 Drug Court Planning Initiative
DCPI annlucnes assistance to jurisdictions in developing adult, juvenile, family, and tribal drug court programs. Jurisdictions will be selected to participate in a facilitated planning process that will begin in November 2005 and conclude in November 2006. Each jurisdiction must identify a team of professionals who will participate in long-distance technical assistance and attend a progressive series of two regional training events. The programs are designed to give communities the fundamentals of planning and implementing drug courts. For additional information and to apply online, click on the link above. ++++++++++ mpact of Methamphetamines on the Child Welfare System NCCAN (National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect) has information and links online to statistics, treatment for meth use, and more at the website above. ++++++++++Substance Abuse Surveys National Survey on Drug Use and Health
Survey findings show that overall 19.1 million Americans or 7.9% of the population ages 12 and old were current illicit drug users, meaning they had used an illicit drug in the past month. This rate is similar to the rates seen in 2002 and 2003. Particularly striking was a decline in current use of marijuana among boys ages 12-17, down from 9.1% in 2002 to 8.1% in 2004. Marijuana use by girls in the same period did not decline. Substance Use among Hispanic Youths
This new NSDUH Report finds : Hispanic youths ages 12 to 17 were less likely to report last month alcohol use and past month marijuana use than non-Hispanic youths. Among Hispanic youths, Cuban youths had the highest rates of past month alcohol use while Puerto Rican youths had the highest rates of past month illicit drug use.
Hispanic youths who were born in the United States were more likely to have used illicit drugs in the past month than Hispanic youths not born in the United States.
++++++++++ The Importance of Family Dinners
CASA Columbia (The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University) has just released a new survey that finds that teenagers who eat with their families at least five times a week are more likely to get better grades in school and much less likely to have substance abuse problems. The survey found that teens having family dinners regularly are: 42% less likely to drink alcohol,
59% less likely to smoke cigarettes, and
66% less likely to try marijuana.
The survey also found that frequent family dinners were associated with better school performance, with teens 40% more likely to get A’s and B’s. The survey is available for download at the CASA website at no charge (22 pages). Hardcopy - $5.
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The Source Click on the link above and again on the image of the Spring 2005 issue of The Source.
The Source is the newsletter of the National Abandoned Infants Assistance Resource Center. This issue concentrates on young children of substance users: Celebrating Families Program, a new approach to reunification for families separated due to parental substance abuse accompanied by neglect, domestic violence, or abuse. - Comprehensive Asian Preschool Services (CAPS) project aimed at reducing health disparities and promoting the health and well-being of Asian/Pacific Islander children.
Best Beginnings Plus - a program designed to support positive parent-child relationships, promote child health and development, enhance parental self-sufficiency, and prevent child abuse and neglect for families who abuse substances. Preschool Drug Prevention Project, a substance abuse prevention program that integrates various aspects of child development, addictions research, and early childhood education into a comprehensive drug abuse prevention effort.
++++++++++ Billings Family Drug Treatment Court
Read about the Family Drug Treatment Court in Billings, Montana. The court was established in June 2001 and has since provided intensive, long-term help to 47 adults and 91 children.
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The Hookah Fad
aka, the nargile, the hubble-bubble, the water pipe. Smoking tobacco concoctions from a hookah is becoming a growing fad among the young. Although tobacco smoke in a hookah is filtered and water-cooled, it is just as dangerous as cigarette smoking. There are now hookah bars.
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The Anti-Meth Site
Resources and information on methamphetamines from the KCI web site. Includes guidelines for cleaning up meth lab sites, meth prevention and education, treatment centers, FAQs.
++++++++++ Women Practice Defensive Drinking
A decade after date-rape drugs spread around the country, young women who go to nightclubs stick with their friends, hang on to their drinks and watch them carefully, just as carefully as they watch their purses. It is no longer acceptable for a stranger to bring a woman a drink.
++++++++++ Screening and Assessment Tools
In fulfilling a request for technical assistance this week I turned up these sites with information about screening and assessment . There were many more, but I thought these three were particularly helpful: Risk and Assessment Instruments – From the NHTSA Implementation Guide for Juvenile Holdover Programs, an appendix that provides links to specific instruments and/or protocols and a list of additional instruments.
++++++++++ New York Drivers License Redesigned to Impact Forgery and Underage Drinking
New licenses include an "optical variable device" that creates a wavy line across the face of the license. It seemingly floats above the text and driver’s photo. Drivers under 25 will be the first to receive the new licenses. The licenses also use a special laminate that will more easily reveal alterations when viewed under a black light and will have “under 21” printed in red ink for all drivers under the legal drinking limit.
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Raid of Drug Suppliers and Manufacturers Yields 400 Arrests
Operation Wildfire, deemed to be the first nationally coordinated investigation to target methamphetamine, resulted in more than 400 arrests and the dismantling of 56 clandestine drug laboratories. Police and drug agents found 30 children in the makeshift labs when they were raided. In the same week the Justice Department launched an anti-meth website for teens called Just Think Twice. The site features graphic pictures of drug users’ rotting teeth, before and after pictures of methamphetamine users and other warnings about the perils of methamphetamine use.
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Jailing Women Who Used Drugs While Pregnant
A recent case in a Maryland county put a mother who had cocaine in her system and in the blood of her baby boy in prison serving 2 and a half years for reckless endangerment of her child. The ACLU is appearing her conviction to Maryland’s highest court in a case that touches on the debates over abortion, drug policy and privacy. Talbot County appears to be the only place in Maryland, and one of the few nationally, where such mothers are sent to prison.
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New Book - Clean: A New Generation in Recovery Speaks Out
MTV’s Chris Beckman uses his own story to illustrate that getting clean and staying clean at a young age is very different from recovery in adulthood. He writes, “We get clean at 20 and feel like we’re 13 emotionally.” Clean is part autobiography, part addiction and recovery primer, and a wake-up call about what’s really going on in schools, cars, malls and wherever else kids come together with drugs and alcohol. Beckman has toured the country since 2202, speaking to school and college audiences about his addiction and recovery.
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Drug Courts: An Effective Strategy for Communities Facing Methamphetamine
This new BJA (Bureau of Justice Assistance) Bulletin finds drug courts to be the primary tool for fighting methamphetamine addiction and trafficking. Drug courts offer longer treatment periods, an emphasis on addressing co-occurring mental health disorders, and intensive community supervision and monitoring. They also help children who are exposed to meth use by providing them with health care, educational, and child protective services. Downloadable 16 page pdf file. And, here is a link to a National Drug Court Institute Drug Court Practitioner Fact Sheet on Methamphatmines
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Global Differences in Drug Abuse
The latest CESAR FAX, a single page report on a single issue associated with substance abuse published weekly, shows that the primary drug of abuse among treatment clients varies widely across continents. Opiates topped the list in European and Asian countries, Cocaine in North and South America, Marijuana treatment admissions were most common in Africa and North America, Sedative use was highest in Australia and New Zealand., North America had the highest percentage of inhalant treatment admissions.
Full report is also available online.
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Mexico is Now the Top Supplier of U.S. Drugs
Mexican drug traffickers have shoved aside their counterparts in Columbia to take control of the $4 billion illegal drug trade in the United States. Mexican groups are behind much of the cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine on the U.S. streets. Mexican enforcement agencies are viewed as either too weak or too corrupt to stop them.
According to the DEA, 92% of the cocaine sold in the U.S. in 2004 arrived from Mexico. The DEA says 14 U.S. cities are staging areas for the illegal drug trade from Mexico. They include seven cities in Texas along with Albuquerque, Los Angeles, San Diego, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Phoenix and Tucson.
An Open Letter to the Media – Meth Science, Not Stigma
Medical and psychological researchers, treatment providers and specialists with many years of experience studying addictions and addiction treatment, have written a letter to the media to request that policies addressing prenatal exposure to methamphetamines and media coverage of this issue be based on science, not presumption or prejudice. The letter condemns the usage of such terms as “ice babies” or “meth babies” as pejorative and stigmatizing labels used in the popular media.
Missouri Initiative to Help Children Found in Missouri Meth Labs
The Children in Meth Labs project is designed to improve the safety and medical care of Missouri children under 17 who are found in or near a meth lab. The project will develop best practices policy protocols for :
Gathering information at the scene for appropriate medical care
Assessing the children’s medical needs
Gathering medical evidence to support appropriate placement,
Immediate testing for methamphetamine exposure
Ensuring long and short-term care and follow-up
Providing training to first responders, fire department personnel, law enforcement, medical personnel, child welfare, juvenile and family courts, legal professionals, foster parents, education professionals, and others.
The project is being conducted by the Missouri Juvenile Justice Association and has been under way since the first of the year.
++++++++++ States act to get kids out of meth labs Officials in Indiana and Kentucky are imposing strict rules meant to get children out of harm’s way and to make sure child protection caseworkers are safe too. Only specially trained law enforcement officials are to enter meth labs and remove children. Children must leave their belongings behind, even their clothing and toys, and will be cleaned with wipes and sometimes wrapped in special blankets before riding in emergency vehicles.
In Vigo County, Indiana, about 70% of children in the state system were rescued from meth labs or have been removed from parents who are meth abusers. The new procedures were formally launched this week in Indiana and have been in place in Kentucky since late last year. ++++++++++ Campaign to Help Young Meth Lab Victims A Riverside, Calif., police officer is organizing an effort to provide a mobile refuge to children caught up in raids on methamphetamine labs. Because of the toxic chemicals used in meth production, children in homes used as meth labs often are subjected to being stripped outdoors and sprayed down with hoses, then held in police cars while their parents are taken to prison. Tom Salisbury is working to raise $30,000 to purchase an RV that will be used to provide some privacy to children during raids and to reduce the trauma inflicted on the children. ++++++++++ Under the Counter: The Diversion and Abuse of Controlled Prescription Drugs in the U.S. From 1992 to 2003, while the U.S. population increased 14%, the number of 12 to 17 year olds who abused controlled prescription drugs jumped 212% (no, this is not a typo) and the number of adults 18 and older abusing such drugs climbed 81%. From the report: From 1992 to 2002, prescriptions written for controlled drugs increased more than 150%, almost 12 times the rate of increased in population and almost three times the rate of increase in prescriptions written for all other drugs. From 1992 to 2003, abuse of controlled prescription drugs grew at a rate twice that of marijuana abuse; five times that of cocaine abuse; 60 times that of heroin abuse.
++++++++++NACO Survey Says Nearly 60% of Counties Report Meth as Their Largest Drug Problem A series of articles about the survey and the meth epidemic: Related Information: ++++++++++Online Course on Substance Abuse NCSC and the American Judges Association have created an online course on substance abuse that explores the nature of alcohol and other drug abuse as well as the dynamics of recovery and is intended as a primer for judges who handle all types of cases. To access the course, click on the link above and go to the NCSC Institute for Court Management Free Resource website. ++++++++++Reclaiming Futures at Ten Sites Around the Country Reclaiming Futures is a new approach to helping teenagers caught in the cycle of drugs, alcohol and crime. It is a five-year $21 million initiative of the Robert Wood Foundation. The project promotes new opportunities and standards of care in juvenile justice by bringing communities together to improve drug and alcohol treatment, expand and coordinate services, and find jobs and volunteer work for young people in trouble with the law. The Reclaiming Futures projects are located at ten sites throughout the country. Judge members of NCJFCJ head up a number of them. I recently had the opportunity to hear Judge Michael Anderegg of Marquette, Michigan speak about the work of Project W.E.A.V.E. in that community. At the home page of this site you can download a project report: Engaging and Empowering Families in Finding Solutions. ++++++++++Treating Women with Co-Occurring Disorders Involved in the Justice System and Their Children
The National GAINS Center reports on women’s issues, needs, and the needs of their children and provides examples of operating programs from around the country. ++++++++++Tennessee’s Youth in Juvenile Justice Facilities: Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Developmental Disability Issues
This is the report of a State of Tennessee survey of 40 juvenile justice facilities across the state to assess the prevalence of mental health, substance abuse and developmental disabilities among youth in juvenile justice facilities. Results of that survey include this information: Half (53% of the youth in juvenile justice facilities were experiencing mental health problems. One of every seven youth (15%) was on some type of psychiatric medicine while in the juvenile justice facility. Two of every five youth (42%) were known to have substance abuse problems. Over one quarter (30%) of all youth in juvenile facilities had co-occurring mental health and substance use problems. The most frequent psychiatric diagnoses reported for youth in juvenile justice facilities were conduct disorder and depression.
The report is about 25 pages long. The appendices are about the same length. Complete report is a 57 page pdf file. ++++++++++
Evaluation of the Juvenile Breaking the Cycle Program
Breaking the Cycle grantee, Lane County, Oregon, was a demonstration program with a juvenile arrestee population in an ambitious effort to effect major changes in their lives. The demonstration enlisted a spectrum of county and state agencies to identify substance abuse problems at the time of arrest, provide an assessment, deliver services, and use sanctions, incentives, and rewards to encourage compliance with treatment and desistance from criminal involvement. This is a lengthy report on the evaluation of that program.. I downloaded the first 11 pages, which include the Executive Summary. ++++++++++ |
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