Substance Abuse Affects Everyone

Cabell County Substance Abuse Prevention Partnership director Anne McGee has an op-ed piece in the Huntington, WV, Herald-Dispatch about the costs of substance abuse and the Governor's Comprehensive Strategic Plan to Address Substance Abuse in West Virginia. The strategic plan was unveiled Nov. 16 at the Governor's Drug Summit in Charleston.

She said substance abuse cuts across simple classification.

"It is an insidious social and public health issue that crosses age, gender, economic, social, racial, cultural, and other boundaries," she writes. "With substance abuse, there is no cut-and-dried determination that a particular party is going to bear the cost: in fact we all pay for substance abuse whether we use substances or not."

To read more of McGee's article, see here.

Medical Marijuana Supporters Tout Job Growth

This story from The New York Times profiles Med Grow Cannabis College, a school in Michigan that teaches the ins and outs of medical marijuana.

It's not a college per se, but instead a class training people in the state's newly legal medical marijuana industry. The Times calls it "a cross between an agricultural extension class and a gathering of serious potheads, sharing stories of their best highs."

The class is founded by 24-year-old Nick Tennant, who said that hundreds of jobs can be created in the medical marijuana industry.

Yet there's still a stigma. An instructor and several students interviewed for the article didn't want to be photographed or their names used.

Youth Key to Anti-Drug Coalition's Success

Youth have been a big part of the success of the Marshall County Anti-Drug Coalition in 2009.

They have been an integral part of two Project Sticker Shock events, one in April and the other in November, that aims to eliminate youth access to alcohol. And local youth were the driving forces behind two community events, June's "We Bark Against Drugs and Alcohol" family fun day and July's sand-volleyball tournament. The last two raised money for two local charities, the We Bark No-Kill Animal Shelter and the Marshall County Special Olympics.

Sticker Shock is designed to eliminate the sales of alcohol to adults who purchase alcohol for youth. Youth volunteers from all over Marshall County, with the help of adult chaperones, place specially made stickers on alcoholic beverages to remind customers that it's illegal to purchase or provide alcohol to minors. Students from Bishop Donahue Catholic High School in McMechen, Cameron High School, John Marshall High School in Glen Dale and Sherrard Middle School, as well as Cameron High School's SADD chapter, the Young Panthers and the Marshall County 4-H Club.

On Veteran's Day, Nov. 11, more than 100 youth and adults spent a portion of their holiday giving back to the community by participating in Sticker Shock.

Earlier this year, the Marshall County Youth in Action held the family fun day at the 12th Street Park in Moundsville. The event included face painting, tie-dying of shirts and games, with the money raised going to the We Bark shelter. In July, the sand volleyball tournament included a dozen teams and raised $235 for the Marshall County Special Olympics.

Governor Unveils Substance Abuse Plan

The West Virginia Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being said Monday that it is recommending the state spend $23.5 million annually on substance abuse prevention.

The board's strategy comes from a call by Gov. Joe Manchin to coordinate efforts to reduce drug and alcohol abuse in the state. Manchin told the Associated Press that he's making it his highest priority.

Among the proposals:

-- Establish community groups in all 55 counties to organize local solutions and channel funding.

-- Require all secondary schools in WV to conduct surveys every two years to gather data on substance abuse.

The governor's plan came from a drug summit that he held with state and local officials, including from the Marshall County Anti-Drug Coalition, on Monday in Charleston. The two-day Share the Vision conference is Tuesday and Wednesday.

WV first lady: "We are losing young people, destroying families"

With the governor set to announce his substance abuse plan on Monday at the Drug Summit in Charleston, first lady Gayle C. Manchin is weighing in with her opinions on the work of the West Virginia Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being. It's the partnership, along with Gov. Joe Manchin, who have developed the plan to counter substance abuse in West Virginia.

"They have created an investment plan to make significant reductions in the social and financial burden these issues places on all West Virginians," Mrs. Manchin wrote in the HuntingtonNews.net. "More importantly, it encourages and explains how each of us, in our own unique role, can become involved at some level in the state wide prevention system."

She added: "What we do know is that there is not a person in the state that has not been touched by the destructive force of substance abuse in some way -- a family member, a friend, a co-worker, a neighbor -- it is at epidemic proportions and growing every day. This is not someone else's problem anymore."