"Summer is just around the corner for most high school students. It's already here for a lot of college students. We all look forward to the carefree joys of the next few months: no school work, time to hang with friends, and for most of us a job. Now, with the summer rush coming in fast, I want to talk about how to have fun this summer without drinking.”
Concerns Rising Over High-Potency Marijuana Use -Emerging Drug Trends Report from Hazelden New research raises concerns about the ever-increasing potency of marijuana and the new ways it is being used. The report covers several recent studies pointing to rising potencies, a new method of consumption called "dabbing" and the use of synthetic marijuana as areas of concern.
National Institute on Drug Abuse [NIDA] uses 5 large-scale data sources to monitor the prevalence and trends regarding drug abuse in the United States. These resources cover a variety of drug related issues, including information on drug usage, emergency room data, prevention and treatment programs, and other research findings. Click here to get a description of each data source and links to their findings.
FEDERAL UPDATE$
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [NIAAA] recently released the new NIAAA Strategic Plan. It outlines the NIAAA plans to advance alcohol research across a broad spectrum of areas and address the challenges presented by alcohol misuse. The Strategic Plan serves as a roadmap for optimizing the allocation of NIAAA's resources to areas of alcohol research most likely to benefit from additional support, translating scientific discoveries for the benefit of the public, and continuing to build NIAAA's position as the key source of evidence-based information on alcohol and health.
WISCONSIN UPDATE$
Healthy Wisconsin Initiative To Focus Statewide Efforts On Key Health Issues - Plan aimed at improving issues affecting health of Wisconsin families by 2020. Building on a year of collaboration with organizations from around the state, health officials launched Healthy Wisconsin, aimed at improving the health of Wisconsin residents by 2020. The plan highlights five priority areas for improving health: 1. Alcohol 2. Nutrition and physical activity 3. Opioids 4. Suicide 5. Tobacco Healthy Wisconsin includes a state health assessment and improvement plan to help communities identify strategies to make Wisconsin healthier. FULL REPORT
WAUKESHA UPDATE$
Awhile back a group from the Fox Valley called RISE TOGETHERvisited a few schools in Waukesha County. Their presentations are young people, who are in recovery, speaking about prevention to other young people. They recently partnered with Wisconsin Voices for Recovery to produce a summary of their research that they collected over the past 3 years in an academic study called “Understanding the Teenage Drug Epidemic" The data from the 350+ students in Waukesha schools is available by emailing Adele Revoy. No schools or students' names are identified in their report.
Stories in the news are describing how people are passing out behind the wheel, overdosing with their kids in the car, and causing crashes. This is a new risk to drivers.
Check out this websites for more information on drugged driving.
Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) TRAIN – website offering on-line trainings on the hottest topics. Clickhere for the list of 37 courses related to opioids.
