Wood County Prevention Coalition
Uniting For A Drug-Free Community Since 2004
Wood County Youth Survey Shows Decreases in Alcohol, Marijuana, Tobacco and Other Drugs
The results are in from the 2016 Wood County ADAMHS Youth Survey, and while most of the results are promising, there is still work to be done.
The youth survey has been conducted biennially since 2004. Students in grades 5-12 in all 9 Wood County school districts, as well as Penta Career Center, are given an anonymous survey measuring their alcohol, tobacco and drug use. In recent years, questions have been added covering a variety of other topics, including suicide, bullying, school climate, and gambling.
Some highlights of the recent survey include:
Nicotine - A dramatic decrease in 30-day cigarette use across all grades, with only 6.1 percent of seniors reporting use. Electronic cigarette use is emerging among Wood County Youth with rates ranging from 8.1 percent among 9th graders to 14.0 percent among 12th graders. It appears that electronic cigarette use may be replacing cigarette use.
Alcohol – While 45.6 percent of seniors reported annual alcohol use, annual and monthly use has declined dramatically since 2008. Wood County’s rate of decline is also faster than the national rate of decline.
Marijuana – Both annual and monthly rates declined in all grades except for 8th and 10th, where a slight increase was reported. When compared to national rates, marijuana use among Wood County seniors is not only below the national average for their 12th-grade counterparts, but also for the first time dipped below the national use rate for 10th grade students.
When it comes to heroin use, overall use by students is down. In 2014, 0.7 percent of students in grades 7-12 reported using heroin. This year, 0.6 percent of students reported using heroin. In raw numbers, that means 31 of the students used this year, down from 41 students who reported using in 2014. These numbers appear to be encouragingly low, however, local use is actually higher than the national use rates.
In other reporting, the survey revealed:
8.7 percent of Wood County youth report significant mental health problems, an increase of 1.5 percent over 2014’s rate of 7.2 percent.
Youth who report more mental health problems are more likely to engage in substance use across a broad variety of substances.
For additional coverage click on any of the following links:
The Morning Show Broadcast from March 11th
For a copy of the youth survey, please contact mkarna@wcesc.org
Senate passes bipartisan bill to combat painkiller abuse, heroin addiction
WASHINGTON — The Senate passed a bipartisan bill Thursday to help states and local governments fight Americans' growing addiction to heroin and prescription painkillers — an epidemic that has caused drug overdose to become the nation's leading cause of accidental death.
Senators voted 94-1 to approve the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which was sponsored by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio. The bill authorizes the attorney general to provide grants to states, local governments and non-profit groups for programs to strengthen prescription drug monitoring, improve treatment for addicts, and expand prevention, education and law enforcement initiatives.
The bill still must be approved by the House, where it has been introduced by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.
The Senate vote came after Democrats complained that the bill does not include any money to carry out the programs.
The legislation authorizes $725 million for federal grants but does not allocate any actual funds, which would have to be approved as part of legislation to fund federal agencies for the 2017 fiscal year. Senate Republicans last week blocked an effort by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., to add $600 million in emergency money to the bill.
"Let's not pretend that there is new money for this," Whitehouse said. "The sooner we can get this funded, the sooner we can save lives."
GOP leaders said that Congress already appropriated more than $400 million in funds that are available now for programs to combat opioid abuse as part of a huge spending bill passed in December.
"This authorization bill, in conjunction with the $400 million appropriated for opioid-specific programs just a few months ago, can make important strides in combating the growing addiction and overdose problem we’ve seen in all 50 states," said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
President Obama is asking Congress for an extra $1.1 billion in his 2017 budget request to pay for drug treatment for people addicted to prescription painkillers and heroin.
To read the remaining portion of the article, click here:
New Study Says Teens Have Easy Access to E-Cigarette Ads Online
Most don’t have age checks.
Teens may have easy access to e-cigarette marketing online even though U.S. regulations require tobacco websites to verify users are old enough to legally smoke, a new study suggests.
Under a 1998 legal settlement tobacco companies reached with the U.S. government, cigarette websites are supposed to include what’s known as age-verification gates. These gates require users to verify they are 21 years old by supplying their name, address, birth date, driver's license number and the last four digits of their Social Security number.
But when researchers reviewed websites for the 19 brands sold by the 12 leading e-cigarette companies by market share, they found just one required detailed registration, according the report today in JAMA Pediatrics.
“Strong age-verification gates on e-cigarette websites would make it harder for the young teenager who has yet to vape to impulsively view e-cigarette websites,” said lead study author Samir Soneji of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Evaluation and Geisel School of Medicine.
Besides limiting exposure to e-cigarettes among curious teens who haven’t yet “vaped,” or smoked using the devices, strong gates may also limit teens’ ability to see the thousands of flavors designed to entice users to sample a wide variety of e-cigarettes, Soneji added by email.
Big tobacco companies, including Altria Group, Lorillard Tobacco and Reynolds America, are all developing e-cigarettes. The battery-powered devices feature a glowing tip and a heating element that turns liquid nicotine and other flavorings into a cloud of vapor that users inhale.
About 2 million middle and high-school students tried e-cigarettes in 2014, triple the number of teen users in 2013, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last April.
Previous research has also found that teens who try electronic cigarettes may be more than twice as likely to progress to traditional cigarettes as their peers who haven’t used the devices.
For the current study, researchers found the stringency of age-verification gates varied across brands: two had no gate, five stated warnings, 10 required clicks/checks for users to indicate they were old enough to use the site, one required birth date entry, and one required a detailed registration.
Read the remainder here:http://fortune.com/2016/03/07/teens-e-cigarettes-ads-online/
Wood County Prevention Coalition Meeting
Friday, May 13, 2016, 08:30 AM
Wood County Educational Service Center 1867 N Research Drive, Bowling Green, OH, United States
RSVPs are enabled for this event.
Safe Communities Swallow Your Pride Call for a ride Event on St. Patrick's Day 419-823-77665
Heroin Focus Group Meeting on March 23rd
Underage Drinking can detour academic success
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