House, Senate Eliminate Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities Program

The House voted to eliminate the State Grants portion of the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities (SDFSC) program on July 24^th, and included $195 million for the national programs portion, an increase of $54.7 million from the FY 2009 level.

On Thursday, July 30^th the Senate Appropriations committee also voted to eliminate the State Grants portion of the SDFSC program, and recommended $224.9 million for the national programs portion, an increase of $84.6 million. The Full Senate has not yet voted to pass this legislation.

Feds Uproot Marijuana Farming in California

Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, reaffirmed in Fresno, Calif., the Obama administration's efforts to shut down marijuana farming and said the US wouldn't support the legalization of marijuana.

"Legalization is not in the president's vocabulary, and it's not in mine," Kerlikowske told the Fresno Bee.

Marijuana is of particular interest in Fresno County, California, where it's big business. Raids over the past two weeks have netted marijuana plants worth upward of $1.26 billion and 82 arrests. Mexican drug cartels are involved in the marijuana farming, police said.

CMCA Advanced Training Registration Continues

Registration is open for the Advanced CMCA training Aug. 6-7 at the Marshall County Family Resource Network, 324 7th St., Moundsville, WV.

The cost is $20 for both days, lunch included. A registration form is here.

Compliance Check's Success Makes Local TV Newscast

Marshall County Family Resource Network substance abuse prevention director Latrisha Whitelatch and the county's successes in reducing underage drinking were featured prominently in WTRF-TV's local newscasts Wednesday and Thursday.

Whitelatch appeared in a D.K. Wright story about how fewer Marshall County retailers are selling alcohol to minors, as discovered in the recent compliance checks. A year ago, there were 45 of 48 sales of alcohol to minors in undercover checks by the Marshall County Sheriff's Department. This year so far only 11% of Marshall County retailers have sold alcohol to minors.

The story, featuring an interview conducted Wednesday afternoon in the Marshall County Family Resource Network's offices in Moundsville, appeared as the second story in the 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts on Wednesday as well as 5 a.m., 5:30 a.m., 6 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. newscasts on Thursday. Unfortunately, the video is not available online but Wright's story is available in printed form on the WTRF Website.

California Takes on Inhalant Abuse

n California, there's a renewed emphasis on the dangers of inhalants among middle school age children.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the California Assembly is working on a bill to limit the sales of small canisters. In Los Angeles and elsewhere, there have been reports of children as young as 11 and 12 who have passed out from using inhalants of nitrous oxide. It's considered a gateway drug; the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said that 12- and 13-year-olds abuse inhalants more than they abuse marijuana.

Unfortunately, it's been an issue here in Marshall County as well. Two Ohio men were arrested in the spring in Moundsville on inhalant-abuse related charges. Back then, the Marshall County Anti-Drug Coalition and the Marshall County Family Resource Network introduced a media campaign through the local newspapers and our Website about the dangers of inhalants and what parents could do to look for signs of that type of abuse.

Inhalant abuse can be deadly. It's so dangerous that three out of 10 inhalant-related deaths occur on first time use. West Virginia has the highest rate among the 50 states of high school students who reported using inhalants at least once (20.4%). It's a misdemeanor offense here.

Prescription Drug Abuse Can Be a Killer

The director of the Cabell County (WV) Substance Abuse Prevention Partnership is calling attention to the motor vehicle accidents caused by prescription drug abuse.

Writing in The Herald Dispatch of Huntington, WV, Anne McGee wrote that while lives are saved by prescription drugs, their misuse is a major killer.

"These drugs have the potential to kill and destroy lives, through addiction, or overdose, or the operation of motor vehicles," McGee writes.

McGee makes some suggestions to help keep everyone safe from the dangers of prescription drug abuse as well. The full story is here.

Marshall County Shows Major Progress in Reducing Sales of Alcohol to Minors

MOUNDSVILLE, WV – After a dismal 2008 in terms of selling alcohol to minors in spot checks by police, Marshall County retailers have shown dramatic improvement in 2009.

In alcohol-law compliance checks over the course of several months in the spring and early summer, only 11 percent of retailers sold alcohol to an undercover minor working with police. That compares to a 94 percent buy rate in 2008. Only five businesses have sold to minors. During last year’s compliance checks, alcohol was sold to minors 45 times out of 48 attempts. This year’s success is the strongest evidence so far that the communitywide effort to reduce youth access to alcohol, spearheaded by the Marshall County Anti-Drug Coalition, has been working.

“These compliance checks are needed to help eliminate youth access to alcohol,” said Latrisha Whitelatch, substance abuse prevention director at the Marshall County Family Resource Network in Moundsville. “We’re proud of the Marshall County retailers who have been much more alert to the problem of underage drinking. For those who have sold to minors, we offer free training that will help them in the future.”

The lower sell rate to minors is the result of the Marshall County Family Resource Network and the Marshall County Anti-Drug Coalition’s increased effort to reduce youth access to alcohol. One of those initiatives has been the Training for Intervention ProcedureS (TIPS) program. The two-and-a-half-hour TIPS program is offered free of charge by the Marshall County Family Resource Network to Marshall County companies and their employees. TIPS is designed to prevent intoxication, drunk driving and underage drinking by enhancing the fundamental “people skills” of servers, sellers and consumers of alcohol and may benefit you by reducing insurance premiums, improving customer service while decreasing penalties from alcohol violations and improving staff professionalism. It has trained 67 people in Marshall County since 2007.

This year’s compliance checks were carried out by the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s office worked with the Marshall County Prosecutor’s Office, the Marshall County Magistrate’s Office and West Virginia Alcohol and Beverage Control. The Marshall County Family Resource Network and the Marshall County Anti-Drug Coalition administers the compliance-check process. The compliance checks are funded by a SPF SIG Implementation Grant from the WV Governor’s Office and the WV Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being and the Purdue Pharma Asset Forfeiture Funds: Drug-Free West Virginia Grant Program. The grants are administered by the Marshall County Family Resource Network. The compliance checks began in April and will continue through the fall.

The next TIPS training is Aug. 20. To register, please call Theresa Parsons at the Marshall County Family Resource Network at (304) 845-3300 or email spfsigcoordinator@comcast.net.

Marijuana: "A Slow Form of Suicide"

The New York Times over the weekend weighed in on how more potent marijuana available today (compared to the 1970s) has caused even more dangers -- particularly to the young -- with addiction.

Says one woman interviewed in The New York Times: Smoking pot "was a slow form of suicide."

Paper: Drug Abuse Harming West Virginia

The Charleston Daily Mail says in an editorial published Thursday that drug abuse "has blighted families, neighborhoods and communities all over West Virginia."

Citing a study released by the WV Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being last week, the editorial says that every area of West Virginia has been affected: Criminal justice, schools, health care, work force and the state's overall economy.

The partnership has said that "urgent attention" is needed to prevent drug and alcohol abuse.

"It makes its case," the paper said.

You can read more about the WV Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being's report here.

West Virginia Opening Drug Courts

The Associated Press reports that so far in 2009, the State of West Virginia has already opened five drug courts and it's planning to have a sixth -- in Cabell County -- by the end of the year.

The AP said that drug courts offer community-based treatment programs for nonviolent offenders who suffer from abuse or addiction problems. It's an alternative to sentencing someone to state prison.

Registration Begin Soon for Advanced CMCA Training

Substance abuse professionals and coalition members are invited to attend the Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol Advanced Training, which will be held Aug. 6 and 7 at the Marshall County Family Resource Network, 324 7th St., Moundsville.

The trainer is Eric Rowles of Leading to Change Inc.

For more information, please contact Latrisha Whitelatch at marshallcountyspfsig@comcast.net or (304) 845-3300.

FRN Helps to Change Youth-Alcohol Law

MOUNDSVILLE -- The use of alcoholic beverages by minors is now a juvenile delinquency offense, thanks to a revision of the Code of West Virginia passed this spring by the West Virginia Legislature.

Previously, underage drinking was a status offense that was referred to the state Department of Health and Human Resources. Now, under the provisions of House Bill 2877 that took effect July 10, the use of alcoholic beverages by minors will become a misdemeanor act of juvenile delinquency punishable by up to 72 hours in a juvenile detention facility and a fine between $100 and $500. It can also include, in lieu of the fine or incarceration, probation up to one year.

The original bill was shepherded through the West Virginia Senate by Jeffrey V. Kessler, D-2nd District, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and then during conference merged with House Bill 2877 and was supported by both Houses of the West Virginia Legislature. The new law received strong support in Marshall County from Sheriff John Gruzinskas, Magistrate Bill Anderson and Marshall County Family Resource Network executive director Stacie Dei and substance abuse prevention director Latrisha Whitelatch. It caps an effort that took the past two legislative sessions.

Sheriff Gruzinskas said that after taking office as sheriff, he heard from Prosecutor Jeff Kramer and then-Judge John Madden who said that as long as underage drinking is a status offense, there would never be any headway in curing the problem. HB 2877 was a step in that direction.

“On the legislative calendar, this may have been seen as some small, obscure bill,” Sheriff Gruzinskas said. “On the contrary, for the health of our children and our children’s future, this was one of the most important bills passed.”

Strengthening the penalty for underage drinking will hopefully have the effect of preventing young people from alcohol use.

Sen. Kessler said that the best way to treat alcohol-related issues and to prevent later social costs are to prevent them from occurring.

“Prevention and intervention are the keys to reducing the future costs for society created by abuse,” he said. It appears to me the best way to prevent substance abuse problems and addictions are to keep young people from exposure and from using alcohol as a gateway to other drugs.”

The Marshall County Family Resource Network is a not-for-profit organization that builds community partnerships to make Marshall County a better place to live and work. The FRN’s key efforts focus on substance abuse prevention, health and wellness and community development. It has leveraged more than $2.2 million in state and federal grants to help Marshall County over the past three years. It can be reached at 304-845-3300 or on the Web at marshallcountyfrn.com.

Drunken-Driving Crashes Down Nationwide; But Drug-Related Driving Up

A federal agency says that progress is being made in reducing the number of drunken drivers at the same time that more drivers are using drugs.

In a survey conducted in 2007, 2.2 percent of drivers had a blood-alcohol content of 0.8 percent or higher, which would exceed the limit for driving while intoxicated in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. That compares to the first survey in 1973, when 7.5 percent of drivers above the 0.8 limit.

You can find the CNN story here.

Still, 13,000 people are killed each year in drunken-driving accidents. And 16.3 percent of nighttime weekend driving arrested people tested positive for drugs: The most common drug was marijuana (8.6 percent), cocaine (3.9 percent) and over-the-counter/prescription drugs (3.9 percent).

Here's the news release from NHTSA.

Unfortunately, the data isn't as good in West Virginia. Fatalities per million miles traveled and alcohol-impaired driving fatalities per 100 million miles traveled both went up, and are higher than the national average.

Substance-Abuse Related Expenses Cost WV Taxpayers

MOUNDSVILLE, WV -- A report released Thursday said that $332 million of the state's criminal-justice system budget was spent last year on alcohol and drug-related offenses and will rise to $496 million a year in eight years.

The analysis -- "The Financial Burden of Substance Abuse in West Virginia: The Criminal Justice System" -- was released Thursday by the West Virginia Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being. It's part of the WVPRC's attempts to estimate how much drug and alcohol abuse costs the state annually.

Alcohol- and drug-related expenses cost rose 20% from $276 million in 2005 to $332 million in 2008, the WVPRC said. And it's projected to balloon to $496 million a year by 2017, a jump of 49%. The state's criminal justice system includes the Division of Corrections, Parole Board, Regional Jail Authority, Prosecuting Attorney Office, Public Defender Program and Division of Juvenile Justice; state and municipal police and county sheriffs; and the WV Circuit Court, WV Magistrate Court and Probation Office.

"So many people think that substance abuse doesn't affect them or that it has no impact on their lives. But it does," said Latrisha Whitelatch, substance abuse prevention director of the Marshall County Family Resource Network in Moundsville and acting chair of the Marshall County Anti-Drug Coalition. "Even if they don't have any personal connection to substance abuse, they are paying for it as taxpayers."

The study finds that alcohol and drug abuse are a major problem in West Virginia, with nearly 8% of the state's residents were drug- or alcohol-dependent. It urges that the state can't delay in addressing these problems.

"The state should direct urgent attention at preventing drug and alcohol use at all ages," the study said. "This approach will certainly lessen the financial burden that is facing the criminal justice system and free up resources for other much-needed programs."

Whitelatch said that there should be more investment in prevention.

"If you invest in prevention efforts that the Marshall County Anti-Drug Coalition and other substance abuse prevention coalitions do, it will be effective in the long run," Whitelatch said.

The study is part of the Family Funding Study, funded with federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Block Grant money administered by the West Virginia Division of Criminal Justice. The WV PRC is affiliated with Marshall University and funded primarily through two federal grants: The Substance Abuse Prevention & Treatment Block Grant administered through the WV DHHR's Bureau for Behavioral Health and Health Facilities and a Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant administered through the WV Governor's Office via its Division of Criminal Justice Services.

You can find the full report at prevnet.org.

Substance Abuse Costly to WV's Criminal Justice System

More than $330 million of WV’s criminal justice system budget was consumed to address alcohol and drug involved offenses in 2008, according to a new report released this month by the WV Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being.

“The Financial Burden of Substance Abuse in West Virginia: The Criminal Justice System” -- available at www.PrevNET.org -- provides trends in the estimate of the cost of drug and alcohol use in the criminal justice system from 2005 to 2008. The West Virginia criminal justice system includes the Regional Jail Authority, Division of Corrections, Parole Board, Prosecuting Attorneys Institute, Public Defender Program, Law Enforcement, the Judicial System, and Division of Juvenile Services.

“The cost of drug and alcohol use is increasing astronomically in the different agencies, and the state of WV bears the burden of most of the cost,” said Mike Lacy, Chair of the WV Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being and Director of Probation Services for the WV Supreme Court of Appeals.

“Direct and indirect drug and alcohol crimes make up a large proportion of what the criminal justice system deals with in WV. For example, nearly 65% of inmates at the regional jail authority facilities are there for direct and indirect drug - and alcohol-related crimes in 2008, costing the state over $50 million, a cost that has increased by nearly 20% since 2005,” said Lacy.

“The Financial Burden of Substance Abuse in West Virginia: The Criminal Justice System” is the first set in a series of reports that will examine the cost of drug and alcohol use in the criminal justice, health care, education, child welfare, and workforce systems in WV. A comprehensive report, incorporating estimates from all these different sectors of the government, will be produced at the end of the project.

The reports are part of a larger Family Funding Study project which is funded with federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Block Grant money administered by the WV Div. of Criminal Justice (DCJS).

This report was produced by the WV Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being’s staff at the WV Prevention Resource Center. The WVPRC is an affiliate of Marshall University and funded primarily through two federal grants: the Substance Abuse Prevention & Treatment Block Grant administered through the WV DHHR's Bureau for Behavioral Health and Health Facilities and a Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant administered through the WV Governor's Office via its Division of Criminal Justice Services.

Additional information about the WV Partnership, the WVPRC, and the Funding Study project is available at www.PrevNET.org.

Prescription Bottle-Like Candy Containers Draw Controversy

A southern West Virginia pharmacy is taking heat for handing out candy to children in bottles that looked like prescription bottles.

The Ripley, WV, Pharmacy says it didn't intend to cause controversy with the bottles, which have been used by pharmacies and hospitals in the past for the same type of marketing. But Dodie Rhodes, whose son recently died from a prescription drug overdose, said it's a bad idea.

"How many deaths have we had from prescription drugs," Rhodes told WSAZ.com. "I can understand the marketing part of it, but I'm thinking, who would give out candy to children in pill bottles."

The pharmacy has said it won't use the bottles again. 

Sand Volleyball Tournament Deadline Today

MOUNDSVILLE, WV -- Today is the deadline for teams to register for the Marshall County Youth in Action sand volleyball tournament.

The tournament is scheduled Friday, July 10, between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., at the 12th Street Park in Moundsville. Cost: $5 a team. Proceeds benefit the Special Olympics.

Call Megan at (304) 845-3300 to register.

TIPS Training Program Now Free to Marshall County Employers

MOUNDSVILLE, WV – Retailers and their employees who sell alcohol are invited to attend a training program that prevents sales to minors and people who are already intoxicated. The training program is free to businesses in Marshall County, thanks to the Marshall County Family Resource Network’s receipt of grant funds from the West Virginia Purdue Pharma Asset Forfeiture Funds: Drug-Free West Virginia Grant Program.

The Training for Intervention ProcedureS, or TIPS, is a dynamic, skills-based training program designed to prevent underage drinking, intoxication and drunk driving by enhancing the “people skills” of servers, sellers and consumers of alcohol.

The training session will be held from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Monday, July 20, at the Marshall County Family Resource Network, 324 7th Street, Moundsville.

The TIPS program is designed to help retailers and their employees to comply with local and state regulations, help protect them from alcohol liability lawsuits and improve professionalism, customer service and customer satisfaction.

The TIPS program is funded by grants from the WV Governor’s Office and the WV Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being. The grant is made possible by the State of West Virginia’s receipt of a federal Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPF SIG) from the U.S. Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, and the West Virginia Purdue Pharma Asset Forfeiture Funds (PPF): Drug-Free West Virginia (DF) Grant Program.

The grants are administered by the Marshall County Family Resource Network.

For more information on the TIPS training or to register, please contact Theresa Parsons, SPF-SIG coordinator, at (304) 845-3300 or at spfsigcoordinator@comcast.net. 

CMCA Training in Moundsville Aug. 6-7

MOUNDSVILLE –The Marshall County Anti-Drug Coalition will sponsor a  Communities Mobilizing for Change training on Alcohol on Aug. 6 and 7.

The training is for prevention professionals and anti-drug coalition members. The trainer is Eric Rowles, president of Leading to Change Inc. of Charlotte, N.C. He has worked with more than 130,000 youth, adults, administrators, professionals and policymakers in the past 15 years.

A location and times will be announced shortly.

CEUs have been applied for through the WV Prevention Resource Center.

For more information, please contact Latrisha Whitelatch at (304) 845-3300 or by emailat  marshallcountyspfsig@comcast.net.