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SAPCA Members,
Join us on Halloween morning for another Sticker Shock Kick-Off!
Our speakers will include, Katie Warren, who will talk about how alcohol negatively affected her life; Mayor William Euille, Chief Earl Cook and Sheriff Dana Lawhorne.
Sincerely,
Noraine
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| SAPCA Board Says Goodbye to Tonia Copeland 
SAPCA said thank you and goodbye to Tonia Copeland, a board member since 2012. Tonia served as the Youth Services Coordinator for the Alexandria Police Department. She volunteered for numerous SAPCA initiatives such as Sticker Shock, Kick Butts Day, Titan Takeovers, Alcohol Awareness Month activities and many more. We wish her the best of luck as the Director of Admissions for a group home in Bristow! |
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Alexandria Celebrates National Recovery
Month
The community celebration was a family event with a cookout, moon bounce, snow cones, popcorn, entertainment, speakers, and information tables for community resources. Delegate Charniele Herring spoke at the event about the importance of legislation that is supportive and favorable to those with alcohol and other drug problems. Kate Garvey, Director of Community and Human Services presented Delegate Herring with a plaque to honor her for her service to Alexandrians.
In addition to SAPCA, the celebration was sponsored by the Partnership for a Healthier Alexandria's Mental Health Anti-Stigma HOPE Campaign, Substance Abuse Addiction Recovery Alliance (SAARA), the Fairfax-Fall Church Community Services Board, Virginia Cares Reentry Program, Friends of the Alexandria Mental Health Center, the Alexandria Department of Community and Human Services and the Department of Recreation, Parks & Cultural Services.
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| Project Sticker Shock Kick-off (10/31)
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| UPCOMING PARTNERS' EVENTS |
On October 4, 2015 in Washington, DC more than 600 organizations from around the world will gather in a show of solidarity and collective force. Together everyone can help the 22 million Americans with addiction, stand up for the 23 million more in recovery, and urgently act to save the 350 lives lost each day. The free event will feature live musical performances from Joe Walsh, Steven Tyler, Sheryl Crow, The Fray, Jason Isbell, Aloe Blacc, John Rzeznik and more!
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Mental Health Awareness Week (10/5-14)
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Lowering the minimum drinking age from 21 to 18 could increase the high school dropout rate, a new study suggests. The presence of legal-aged peers in a high school setting increases access to alcohol for younger students, researchers report in the
Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
The researchers examined dropout rates in the years before the minimum drinking age was raised to 21 by the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. They found 17-year-olds were affected by their 18-year-old peers,
Time reports.
"We saw a 3 percent increase in dropout rates in the whole sample," lead author Andrew Plunk said. "In already at-risk groups [of dropping out of high school] like blacks and Hispanics, we saw a 4 percent increase." In young people whose parents had drinking problems, the dropout rate increased by 40 percent.
With 3.3 million students expected to graduate from high school this year, a 3 percent increase in the dropout rate would translate into 99,000 additional dropouts, the article notes.
"The minimum legal drinking age changes how easy it is for a young person to get alcohol," Plunk said in a
news release. "In places where it was lowered to 18, it's likely that more high school students were able to get alcohol from their friends." For certain vulnerable students, access to alcohol might reduce their chance of graduating from high school, he said.
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Many doctors are avoiding recommending medical marijuana to their patients, according to Boston.com.
Some feel they don't know enough about its effectiveness, or are worried about liability and lawsuits.
In Massachusetts, most doctors are not approved to certify residents as medical marijuana patients, the article notes.
Patients must be certified by a doctor in order to receive legal marijuana from one of the state's two dispensaries. Currently there are only 108 certified doctors in the state.
Prescribing medical marijuana has become a niche business for some clinics. "Those clinics are not set up to deal with a specific medical disease," said Dr. Dennis Dimitri, President of the Massachusetts Medical Society. "They're set up to prescribe a drug. And I cannot think of other examples of physicians who have a clinic whose only purpose is to prescribe a specific medication or drug." He added, "I think at this point, for many physicians, they feel like the jury is still out on medical marijuana."
Many doctors are concerned that because marijuana is banned by the federal government, their medical licenses could be at risk if they recommend it. Some hospitals and medical practices are discouraging doctors from discussing medical marijuana with their patients, according to the article.
Officials at the Cambridge Health Alliance have told their providers not to certify patients "pending better evidence about the benefits and risks of marijuana," according to spokesman David Cecere.
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E-Cigarettes Being Used to Vaporize Marijuana
E-cigarettes are being used by more people to smoke marijuana or synthetic drugs, CNN reports.
People use the devices to get high without police, parents or teachers knowing.
E-cigarette devices, known as vape pens, are showing up in a growing number of drug busts, according to CNN. It is almost impossible to tell whether a person is using them to smoke nicotine, marijuana concentrate or synthetic drugs such as K2 or Spice.
According to Reuters, a new study finds almost 20 percent of high school students who said they used e-cigarettes for nicotine also used them to vaporize marijuana.
The study of almost 4,000 teens appears in the journal Pediatrics.
"Forms of cannabis that can be vaporized, like hash oil, can be many times stronger than marijuana that is smoked," lead researcher Meghan Morean of Oberlin College in Ohio told Reuters. She found that of students who had used e-cigarettes, 18 percent used them to vaporize cannabis in some form, including hash use and wax infused with THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.
The study found students were 27 times more likely to use e-cigarettes to vaporize cannabis than adult e-cigarette users.
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Noraine Buttar, MPH
421 King St
Alexandria, VA 22314
703.746.3670 (office)
703.887.8812 (mobile)
[email protected]
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