NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER

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SAPCA Members,  
  
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Noraine

IN THIS ISSUE

* SAPCA Presents wreckED to over 200 Teens
* Above the Influence Members Attend CADCA's Drug Free Awards Dinner (10/8)
* SAPCA Describes Coalition Building Process to Mayors from El Salvador (10/10)
* SAPCA and ROTC Partner to Conduct Successful Sticker Shock Campaign (10/25)
* Titan Takevoer (12/12)
* Finding the Balance: Designing Budgets with Diversified Funding Sources (12/4)
* Teens Less Likely to Drink if Their Communities Have Strong Social Hosting Laws
* Marijuana Legalization Impeding Fight Against Prescription Drug Abuse: Botticelli
* Synthetic Marijuana-Related ER Visits More Than Doubled in One Year
* San Francisco Bill Would Require Drug Makers to Fund Take-Back Program

SAPCA'S EVENTS

 SAPCA Presents wreckED to over 200 Teens

 

Noraine presented wreckED to over 200 ROTC students at TC Williams and middle school students at the Teen Summit at George Washington Middle School.  The Partnership at Drugfree.org's wreckED is a program that challenges teens to think more about their own and their friends' behavior regarding alcohol and other drugs, and to consider the consequences of getting involved. The program focuses on alcohol, marijuana and prescription drugs. The teens asked a lot of questions about marijuana's negative effects on the developing teen brain.

 

If you work with youth and would like to host a wreckED presentation, contact Noraine at noraine.buttar@alexandriava.gov.

 

  

Above the Influence Members Attend CADCA's Drug Free Awards Dinner (10/8)

  

(l-r) Noraine, Jane Clinger, Daniel Crowley, Fahria Hossain, Hadeel Elimam, Aisha Yunus, Carla Castro, Andrea Melara, Kim Hurley, Michael Johnson

 

More than 400 business and community leaders packed the Mandarin Oriental in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, Oct. 8, celebrating healthy and substance free communities at CADCA's 16th Annual Drug-Free Kids Campaign Awards Dinner. Noraine, Kim Hurley, Community Health Education Specialist; Michael Johnson, Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Activities; SAPCA Board Members, Daniel Crowley and Jane Clinger; Above the Influence (ATI) Campaign President, Andrea Melara; ATI Members, Hadeel Elimam, Aisha Yunus, Fahria Hossain, and Carla Castro attended the event.

 
A portion of the Drug-Free Kids Campaign benefits CADCA's National Youth leadership Initiative (NYLI), an evidence-based youth development training that helps young people and their adult advisors strategically address their local alcohol, tobacco and other drug problems. 

 

SAPCA Describes Coalition Building Process to Mayors from El Salvador (10/10)

  

 

 

SAPCA presented strategies on forming and managing a coalition to members of a delegation from El Salvador. Sponsored by the Court Services Unit in Alexandria, members of the Municipal Partnership for Violence Prevention in Central America visited Alexandria for a period of four days, and learned about Alexandria law enforcement, the judicial process, the domestic violence program, mentoring groups, teen pregnancy prevention and substance abuse prevention. Joe Regotti, Probation Officer with the Court Services Unit, presented the substance abuse prevention information in Spanish to the Mayors.

 

  

SAPCA and ROTC Partner to Conduct Successful Sticker Shock Campaign

  

 

SAPCA's Sticker Shock campaign kicked off with a press conference at 720 North Saint Asaph St., at 10 a.m. on Saturday, October 25.  Speakers included Mayor Euille and Captain Juan Torres, Alexandria Police Department. Andrea Melara, T.C. Williams Senior and SAPCA Board Member and Dixon Fox, T.C. Williams Sophomore, emceed the event. Over 70 teens attended the kick-off. A huge thank you to Colonel Reginald Geary, Sergeant Major William Jordan and Sergeant Felisa Holden from the T.C. Williams ROTC program for recruiting the youth.

 

During the campaign, teams of youth and adults visited over fifty stores in Alexandria to place "warning" stickers on multi-packs of beer, wine coolers and other alcoholic products, highlighting the penalties for furnishing alcohol to minors. They also placed "Parents Who Host Lose the Most" campaign window clings at participating locations reminding parents and other adults that it is illegal to provide alcohol to minors at house parties.

 

Check out the pictures on our Facebook page.

 

  

UPCOMING EVENTS

 

Calling All Teens!
  
  

UPCOMING PARTNERS' EVENTS

 

Presenters: Patricia Pasqual, Director, Washington, DC Office, The Foundation Center and Mary Lee Anderson, Executive Director, Senior Services of Alexandria
 

When: Thursday, December 4, 2014, 9:00 am light breakfast; 9:15 am - 10:30 am workshop
 

Where: Charles Houston Recreation Center, 901 Wythe Street, Alexandria, VA


S
ponsors: ACT for Alexandria, Alexandria Library, Alexandria Regional Council for the United Way of the National Capital Area, the City of Alexandria, and the Foundation Center of Washington

 

LEARN how to evaluate revenue streams while keeping true to your organization's mission, strengths, and skills.
 
UNDERSTAND how to leverage different funding sources to design programs and services.
 
HEAR about some common mistakes you should avoid that could undermine your efforts to grow and diversify revenue.

BRING back some useful, relevant, tips and hints for ways to identify outside-the-box revenue opportunities.

 

The workshop is FREE, however reservations are required.  Please register by calling the Office of the Arts: 703.746.5588 or on Eventbrite: http://findingthebalancedec4.eventbrite.com

 

In case of inclement weather, this workshop will follow the City of Alexandria weather policies.

 

NATIONAL NEWS

 

A new study finds teenagers are less likely to drink at parties if their community has strong social hosting laws. These laws hold adults responsible if teens drink on their property, even if the adults claim they were unaware that underage drinking was taking place.

 

The researchers looked at 50 communities in California, half of which had social hosting laws, Business Standard reports. Teens were less likely to say they drank at parties if they lived in communities with especially strong social hosting laws.

 

"It does look like there is less-frequent drinking among teenagers in cities with stringent social host laws, even when other city and youth characteristics that are related to underage drinking are controlled for," lead researcher Mallie Paschall of the Prevention Research Center in Oakland, California said in a news release. "So these laws might be an effective strategy for reducing hazardous drinking." He noted, "Most kids get alcohol from social sources, not commercial ones."

 

The findings are published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

 

Strong social hosting laws specifically target underage drinking. They include a civil penalty, such as a large fine, that is quickly administered, Paschall said. Strong social hosting laws also hold property owners responsible, even if they say they didn't know underage drinking occurred. He said police in some communities don't enforce these laws, possibly because of a lack of support from the public or the local prosecutor's office.

 

The researchers plan to study rates of teen drinking before and after social hosting laws are passed, to better measure their impact. They also want to assess the laws' effect on problems related to teen drinking, such as drunk driving.

 

 

 

The national trend toward legalizing marijuana is impeding the fight against prescription drug abuse, according to the Acting Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

 

Michael Botticelli says one in nine people who use marijuana will become addicted to the drug. He noted early use of marijuana increases the risk a person will develop dependency on other drugs, including prescription painkillers and heroin, the Associated Press reports.

 

"It's hard to say at one level that we want to think about prescription drug abuse and heroin abuse without looking at how to prevent kids from starting to use other substances from an early age," he said at a town hall forum on opioid abuse in Maine.

 

Botticelli is in long-term recovery from a substance use disorder, celebrating more than 25 years of sobriety. He said he began drinking at an early age, and struggled with alcoholism. "My personal story is very illustrative of what we see with people who go on to significant addiction later in life," he told the AP.

 

 

A new government report finds emergency rooms visits related to synthetic marijuana more than doubled between 2010 and 2011, HealthDay reports.

Synthetic marijuana, also known as "K2" or "Spice," is especially dangerous because there is a widespread misconception these drugs are safe and legal, according to Pamela Hyde, Administrator at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

 

Emergency rooms reported more than 28,500 visits linked to synthetic marijuana in 2011, up from 11,400 in 2010, according to the report. Among teens ages 12 to 17, the number of visits linked to synthetic marijuana rose from about 3,800 to nearly 7,600 during that year. Among young adults ages 18 to 20, ER visits linked to synthetic marijuana rose from about 2,000 to more than 8,000.

 

Short-term effects of synthetic marijuana include loss of control, lack of pain response, increased agitation, pale skin, seizures, vomiting, profuse sweating, uncontrolled/spastic body movements, elevated blood pressure, heart rate and palpitations. The drug takes effect in three to five minutes, and the high lasts from one to eight hours. In addition to physical signs of use, users may experience severe paranoia, delusions, hallucinations and increased agitation. Its long-term effects are unknown.

 

The Synthetic Drug Prevention Act of 2012 specifically prohibits the sale or possession of some types of synthetic marijuana. The Drug Enforcement Administration and nearly all states have also taken some regulatory action against these products once they have been identified, according to SAMHSA. "However manufacturers of these compounds continue to modify their chemical structures in an attempt to evade current laws," the agency notes.

 

San Francisco Bill Would Require Drug Makers to Fund Take-Back Program

 

Officials in San Francisco have introduced a bill that would require drug manufacturers to fund and manage a take-back program for prescription drugs. The move follows a decision earlier this month by a federal appeals court that forces drug makers to pay to dispose of unused and unexpired medications in Alameda County, California.

 

San Francisco has a pilot drug take-back program, The Wall Street Journal reports. The pharmaceutical industry provides about 40 percent of the funding for the program. The bill would expand the number of drop-off sites from 13 to as many as 60.

 

"There has been great demand for a permanent solution to this environmental, public health and public safety issue. We all have unused and leftover drugs in our homes, but not all of us have a reasonable means to properly discard them," San Francisco Board of Supervisors President David Chiu said in a statement.

 

Alameda County passed an ordinance in 2012 to establish a drug take-back program. The county said the measure is the first in the nation to require drug makers to set up a program to dispose of expired and unused medications. County officials said the annual cost of the program will be about $330,000. The industry trade group, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, estimates the program would cost drug makers about $1.2 million.

The county wants to reduce contaminants in drinking water by giving people an alternative to flushing their medications down the toilet. Officials also hope the measure will reduce prescription drug abuse by reducing the amount of medication in home medicine cabinets.

 

CONTACT INFO

Noraine Buttar, MPH
421 King St
Alexandria, VA 22314
703.746.3670 (office)
703.887.8812 (mobile)
noraine.buttar@alexandriava.gov