"While there is a lot of positive news in this report, those of us doing prevention work should be concerned about young people's growing acceptance of marijuana," said Elysse Chay, PPI's Prevention Services Manager. "It also offers us an opportunity to reach out to youth in innovative ways with meaningful messages about the dangers they face from using marijuana."

Monitoring the Future 2017, underwritten by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), also reported first-ever national, standard estimates of nicotine vaping, marijuana vaping, flavoring-only vaping, and any vaping. It found that marijuana use and vaping were more popular among adolescents than smoking traditional tobacco cigarettes.

You can find the report and related materials on the University of Michigan's website as well as NIDA's site.

Dr. Nora Volkow Discusses the 2017 MTF Results

The campaign message that "Every Try Counts" is refreshing because it reflects what most smokers go through as they attempt to quit. It takes most people multiple attempts -- 6, 7, 8 tries -- before they successfully quit. So the message that "Every Try Counts" will help encourage smokers to keep trying until they're successful. Once someone makes the decision to quit, they're more likely to succeed if they make a quit plan and use the   Wisconsin Quitline at 1-800-QUIT-NOW or talk to their healthcare provider to get coaching and use one of the seven FDA-approved cessation methods.

PPI's Jeffery Roman, the Chair of the City of Milwaukee Equal Rights Commission, spoke at the first Human Rights Celebration at City Hall on December 8. The event, which commemorates the day in 1948 when the United National General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, was cosponsored by the Milwaukee County Human Rights Commission. The declaration proclaimed for the first time fundamental human rights to be universally protected.

Roman is stepping down from his position as chair but will continue to serve on the city's commission. He recounted the many successes of the commission, including increasing the city's rating on the national Human Rights Campaign Municipal Equality Index; advocating for strengthening the city's infrastructure to support racial equity and inclusion; supporting programming that spurs access, opportunity, and equality; and hiring city staff devoted to improving community relations and city accountability and to expanding the reach of protections for all members of our community.

"The principles enshrined in the Declaration are as relevant today as they were in 1948," Roman explained at the event. "We must continue to stand up for our own rights and those of others who for many reasons can't stand on their own. We are afforded a new opportunity every day to take action in our own daily lives -- to uphold the rights that protect us all; the rights that establish the equal dignity and worth of every person. That is the right to promote and be in kinship with all of humanity."   

Interested in becoming a member of the City of Milwaukee Equal Rights Commission? Contact Jessica Langill at jessica.langill@milwaukee.gov. 

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