Wood County Prevention Coalition
Uniting For A Drug-Free Community Since 2004
Special Edition Newsletter for April 24, 2019 Vol. #5 Issue #7
Agenda set for this Friday's Coalition Meeting
The second Wood County Prevention Coalition meeting of the year is set to take place at the Wood County Educational Service Center, 1867 N Research Dr, Bowling Green, OH 43402 this Friday, April 26th from 8:30-10:00 AM. The featured presentation will be from Scott C. Martin, PhD, Bowling Green State University History Professor and Department Chair.
There will also be a legislative update on local, state and federal news in prevention as well as the latest information concerning the coalition. There will also be an opportunity for a round-table discussion.
To view or print the agenda, please see the picture below or open and view the attached pdf below the picture.
A detailed flyer of the coalition meeting is presented below the pdf of the coalition agenda.
For questions about the meeting please contact Milan Karna at (419) 354-9010 ext 174 or email mkarna@wcesc.org.
To learn more about the Wood County Prevention Coalition please visit: wcprevention.org
tobacco 21 laws provide useful tool to reduce youth tobacco use
Truth Initiative Blog Post
April 19, 2019 BY ROBIN KOVAL, CEO and President
For years, Truth Initiative®, tobacco control advocates and the public have been strong proponents of raising the age for tobacco sales from 18 to 21. These policies have the potential to save lives, considering almost all smokers start smoking before age 21. Momentum among states to take action has been growing steadily, with 12 states across the country and more than 450 localities adopting policies, including six states in just the first four months of 2019. Early research shows Tobacco 21 has the potential to reduce youth and young adult tobacco initiation, but is only one part of a comprehensive strategy to address the tobacco and the youth vaping epidemic.
Now that public support has clearly reached a tipping point in favor of tobacco 21 laws, it’s clear the tobacco industry’s sudden support is motivated by self-interest. Recently, we have observed that when the tobacco industry has become involved in the tobacco 21 conversation, policies have been weakened and used to distract policymakers from other measures that are proven to reduce tobacco use. While tobacco 21 policies are a powerful tool, they need to be one part of what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls the “full vaccine” solution: tax increases, strong clean indoor air laws and fully-funded state and local tobacco control efforts, such as flavor and menthol bans. For example, Arkansas recently passed a tobacco 21 policy that included a provision prohibiting local government from regulating sales of tobacco products. Some recent tobacco 21 laws, including those in Virginia and Maryland, exempt active duty military. The Utah law goes further, exempting military spouses and families. In Utah and Virginia, tobacco 21 laws place the burden of enforcement on youth purchasers instead of where it belongs — on retailers who are profiting from the sale of products that youth should not use.
As the movement toward Tobacco 21 laws continues, we strongly urge policymakers to avoid weak provisions with tobacco industry influence and to enact strong laws designed to protect all young people. Even as any federal legislation is pending, states should continue to pass strong Tobacco 21 policies and not wait for a federal law.
Strong Tobacco 21 policies must:
- Eliminate existing or not add possession, use or purchase laws — putting the onus on the retailer and not toward purchasers/users under age 21
- Apply to all tobacco products and not exempt any specific tobacco product, especially flavored products
- Apply to all retail environments and not exempt certain types of stores, restaurants or clubs
- For state-level laws, not contain any language to preempt localities from enacting any type of tobacco control law
- Contain strong enforcement mechanisms (e.g., strong penalties for noncompliance) and have clear language about which entity or entities enforce the law (e.g., law enforcement, revenue, public health or multiple)
- Provide for the law to be implemented all at once on a specific date
- Not contain exemptions (e.g., military personnel and their families)
A Barren Landscape for Meth Treatment
KENNY FOWLES SAYS HE started drinking at age 12. At 15, he tried cocaine, and at 16, methamphetamine.
"I actively used from, you know, when I had my first drink all the way up until about 23 or 24, then I got sober for three years and change, and then relapsed and was back out for another 20 years or so," Fowles recalls. "I would have intermittent periods of recovery, but never really finding the sort of freedom and peace that I have now."
Fowles says treatment options for his substance misuse tended to push spiritual aspects that he struggled to accept, even as those around him told him he didn't have a choice. He was in and out of prison on charges like burglary and drug possession throughout his 30s and early 40s, but it was when he saw an old man with a walker in the prison yard – whom he learned was also addicted to drugs – that Fowles says he really worked to change his habits.
"I just saw myself: 'I'm not going to commit a murder and do life, I'm going to do life in little chunks.' And, you know, I decided that was not something I want," he says.
Now 47, Fowles says he's been in recovery for almost three years thanks to his own 12-step program combining "everything that I had learned and experienced throughout the years." But sticking to recovery is easier said than done, especially for so-called polydrug users who have to experience withdrawal from multiple drugs simultaneously. And though Fowles acknowledges medication-assisted treatment can help keep people addicted to opioids in recovery by minimizing withdrawal effects, the same approach doesn't really exist for one of his drugs of choice.
"Treating a craving for an opiate with a low-grade opiate seems to be efficient enough to keep the addict from putting a needle in their arm or stealing your TV – and there doesn't seem to be a pharmacological alternative for the same behavior from a meth addict," says Fowles, who works as an IT administrator at Landmark Recovery in Scottsdale, Arizona. "That's kind of the rock and a hard place with methamphetamine addiction."
Methamphetamine is not a new drug to the United States. Yet with cheaper and more potent forms from Mexico flooding U.S. communities in recent years – as well as instances of people using meth alongside opioids or other substances – its growing presence highlights the challenges of providing adequate treatment for those who want to enter recovery.
"There (are) no (Food and Drug Administration)-approved medications to treat methamphetamine, and to my knowledge, there's nothing on the near horizon," says Jane Maxwell, a research professor with the Addiction Research Institute at the University of Texas–Austin. "We're into a new epidemic. All we've got are these social, cognitive talk therapies."
Although the majority of the more than 70,000 U.S. drug overdose deaths in 2017 were related to opioids like heroin and fentanyl, the number of overdose deaths involving meth grew by more than 250% between 2011 and 2016, from fewer than 2,000 to nearly 7,000.
Wood county prevention coalition community meeting: featured presentation, "Prohibition at 100: A History of the ‘Noble Experiment’”
Wood County Prevention Coalition Community Meeting
Friday, Apr 26, 2019, 08:30 AM
Wood County Educational Services, Research Drive, Bowling Green, OH, USA
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
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WCPCoalition
Twitter: @woodpccoalition