Wood County Prevention Coalition
Uniting For A Drug-Free Community Since 2004
Alcohol: Coming soon to a college football stadium near you
Monday, Jun 27, 2016 • 8 min read
OMAHA, Neb. -- Booze is trending in the NCAA.
You need only to check here Monday night at Game 1 of the College World Series championship series. For the first time, NCAA-sanctioned beer and wine are being sold at the CWS. That was after both were made available during a similar pilot program at the Women's College World Series earlier this month.
This fall, approximately 40 schools will offer beer (at least) to the general public at their college football stadiums. Several more schools are considering joining the party. No matter what your opinion, some sort of ethical boundary has been crossed.
Let's not forget half of the key demographic in this discussion is underage. Alcohol now seems destined to be not only a staple at college events, but in some cases, endorsed heartily by the NCAA.
"For Chrissakes, it's legal to buy pot in Colorado," said Chuck Neinas, the 84-year-old former NCAA administrator who once banned beer sales at the CWS in 1964.
Using that logic, sure, it's OK. Social mores have changed. Why not enjoy a cold beer on a hot summer day?
"I'm not sure anybody felt we had to go there," said Ron Prettyman, the NCAA's managing director of championships and alliances, who is the man currently in charge of the CWS.
"But it's something we heard for many, many years. Our fan support group in Omaha, year after year, said it was something they were interested in."
The people may have spoken. But the NCAA hasn't spoken to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). So said Colleen Sheehey-Church, the organization's president.
"We do have a reaction," Sheehey-Church told CBS Sports. "It's part of our mission statement. We want to prevent underage drinking. MADD discourages the service of alcohol at a college game-day event.
"We absolutely know the minimum drinking age is 21 and most of the people there are going to be under 21."
That, one NCAA official told CBS Sports, is a legitimate concern.
Fentanyl: Widely Used, Deadly When Misused
By David A. Edwards / The Conversation US
June 20, 2016
Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid narcotic about 100 times as potent as morphine, continues to be in the news, as deaths from fentanyl overdose continue to rise and even more potent nonpharmaceutical forms become available on the street. It was the drug in Prince’s body and the cause of his death by overdose. The Centers for Disease Control has issued a health advisory to warn of its dangers, as deaths from synthetic opioids, mainly fentanyl, rose to 5,500 in 2014.
Many legitimate questions arise whenever tragic events happen. When high-profile persons are affected, the conversation becomes a national one. With news of the growing increase in nonpharmaceutical versions of fentanyl coming in from China and Mexico, the conversation broadens to an international one. How can we prevent deaths from overdose of this potent drug?
Let’s address some of the most frequently asked questions I’ve heard about fentanyl recently, but before we do that, I want to put you in my shoes for a minute.
I am an anesthesiologist. To an anesthesiologist, fentanyl is as familiar as a Philips screwdriver is to a carpenter; it is an indispensable tool in my toolbox. It is the most commonly used painkiller during surgery. If you’ve had surgery, it is more likely than not that you have had fentanyl. Fentanyl is used to blunt airway reflexes and to place the breathing tube into the trachea with minimal coughing. It is the potent analgesic that prevents pain from the surgeon’s scalpel while your body sleeps under anesthesia. It is also the painkiller that allows you to wake from anesthesia without feeling existential pain in the immediate recovery room once the gases are turned off. Fentanyl is used to enable millions of people to undergo major surgery in the United States every day.
Before fentanyl existed, there were morphine and other similar, relatively weak opioids that were insufficient for the type of major surgery that happens today. To treat major surgical pain, morphine is not only too weak but it is slow and, once given, lasts a long time.
Some Performance-Enhancing Substances on the Rise in High School Sports
Brian Krans | Published on June 27, 2016 healthline.com
Researchers examine the use of legal and illegal drugs middle and high school students are taking to gain a competitive edge.
Professional athletes are often tempted to use performance-enhancing substances, and many times they do with favorable, temporary results.
While Mark McGwire’s use of androstenedione to break home run records, or Lance Armstrong’s blood doping for Tour de France wins, may get media attention, it’s not just the professionals — or even college athletes — who are taking chances with their health to perform better on the field.
Researchers with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) examined the use of substances, from energy drinks to steroids, in middle and high school students.
The study, published in Pediatrics, found that not only do student athletes report using these products for a competitive edge, but nonathletes use these same substances to supplement their looks.
Conservative estimates show that roughly 5 percent of students report using the most dangerous drugs — anabolic androgenic steroids and human growth hormone (HGH) — sometime in their lives.
“Five percent of something affecting kids? That’s a lot of kids,” lead study author Dr. Michele LaBotz, a sports medicine physician, told Healthline.
Overall, the study found caffeine is the most widely used substance, with 73 percent of preteens and teens reporting they use it on any given day.
Researchers reviewed rates of performance-enhancing substances from survey data collected from 67,200 students. The sources of the data included Monitoring the Future, the Partnership Attitude Tracking Study, and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System.
Overall, between 3.2 and 7 percent of students report trying, at least once, anabolic steroids, a slight increase from the 5 percent reported in 2012.
Use of synthetic HGH nearly doubled to 11 percent of students.
Wood County Prevention Coalition Meeting
Friday, Sep 16, 2016, 08:30 AM
Wood County Educational Service Center 1867 N Research Drive, Bowling Green, OH, United States
RSVPs are enabled for this event.
About Us
Our Vision: Helping youth be drug-free, productive and responsible citizens.
Our Mission: We are a coalition of compassionate community members working together to coordinate high quality programs for the prevention of youth substance abuse in Wood County.
Email: mkarna@wcesc.org
Website: wcprevention.org
Location: 1867 Research Drive, Bowling Green, OH, United States
Phone: (419)-354-9010
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Twitter: @woodpccoalition