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Scarsdale Drug & Alcohol Task Force |
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Supporting Drug & Alcohol-Free Attitudes and Habits |
| October 2007 | ||
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From MADD...visit this link, http://www.why21.org/parents/ As parents, we are willing to do whatever it takes to keep our children safe. With our infants we have them immunized to ward off disease. When they begin establishing independence as young children we discuss “stranger danger” and give them the skills to protect themselves. With our teens we set curfews and emphasize safe driving. We are even willing to talk about the dangers of illicit drug use. But preventing your teen from drinking before he or she is 21 can often be one of the most difficult issues you—or any parent—may face. Perhaps you think that drinking alcohol as a teen is “rite of passage” because you drank as a teen because the legal age may have been 18 and you turned out OK. And, the thought of answering the question, “Did you drink when you were a teenager?” is enough to leave any parent speechless when it comes to talking to your teens about alcohol use. Don’t panic. Here you can get the information, facts and answers to those tough questions so that you can talk to your child about making the smart, responsible and legal choice to stay alcohol free until the age of 21.
Visit http://www.why21.org/parents for more information. |
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| Summer 2007 | ||
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S U M M E R 2007, let this be your mantra this summer... Set rules Understand and communicate Monitor your teens activites and behaviors Make sure you stay involved in your teen's life Engage your teen in summer activities Reserve time for your family!! |
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| June 2007 | |||||||||||||||||
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Many Kids Get First Drink from Parents, Study Says Many kids get their first taste of alcohol from their parents, but it's not usually the result of raiding the family liquor cabinet, a new study concludes. The Associated Press reported May 29 that researchers from the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health studied alcohol initiation among roughly 4,000 sixth- to eighth-graders in the Chicago area. Researcher Mary Hearst and colleagues found that among 12-year-olds who had consumed alcohol, a third said their parents had given them their first drink. Just a handful reported stealing from the family liquor cabinet, and only 2.4 percent said they got alcohol from a commercial establishment. "Early onset of drinking leads to a long list of alcohol-related problems," said Hearst. "It is important to educate parents about the consequences of alcohol use at a young age and try to prevent them from being their child's primary source of alcohol." As students got older, their alcohol use increased, and youths were less likely to get alcohol from parents and more likely to get it elsewhere. The study showed that drinking rates increased from 17 percent at the beginning of sixth grade to 40 percent by the end of eighth grade. The study appears in the journal Preventive Medicine. Reference:
This article summarizes a mainstream media report of research published in a scientific journal. It is not an original analysis of the source material, which is cited in the reference above.
Rx for keeping your kids prescription drug-free.
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| May 2007 | ||
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The article below ran in "The Scarsdale Inquirer" recently. Please read this informative article written by our Scarsdale Youth Outreach Workers.
“This Is Not Your Parents’ Pot” Written By: Youth Outreach Workers Leah Kaplan, Stephen Muggeo, Lauren Pomerantz, Emily Vallario and Andrew Weisfeld “I just smoke on the weekends.” “Marijuana is not addictive.” “ I don’t drink, I am the designated driver, so tonight I will get high.” “ I get A’s, I am going to the college of my choice and I am the captain of my team.” “My friend’s parents smoke, and they are successful.” Above are common misconceptions that teens and parents share about marijuana use. An appropriate place to start addressing myths is through the eyes of an adolescent. Marijuana tends to be the first drug teens use, and it is the most widely used illicit drug in the The purpose of this article is not to address addiction, however we would be remiss not to mention the potential for marijuana dependency and its use as a gateway drug. Long-term marijuana use can lead to dependency. The active ingredient in marijuana is Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). More recent studies show that the potency of marijuana has increased as well as the possibility of it being laced with hallucinogens. Adolescents are at particular risk because puberty is a time of rapid physical and emotional change. Research shows that marijuana is often viewed as a gateway drug. It is easier to try other substances once having used marijuana and not experienced major consequences. Young people who smoke marijuana are 2-5 times more likely to experiment with other drugs. The most dangerous misconception about marijuana use is that there are no significant consequences to driving under the influence. Marijuana has harmful effects on the skills required to drive safely: alertness, concentration, coordination and reaction time. Data has also indicated that while smoking marijuana, users exhibit the same deficiency as drinking and driving. Culturally, we lack education about driving under the influence of drugs. The more we change this perception, the greater chance we have to change the negative behaviors attached to marijuana and driving. Maybe another area that needs to change is the use of semantics, changing “driving drunk” to “driving under the influence of any drug.” We often hear young people state that they never hear about death while driving high. Since education and academic success is so highly valued in our community, it is important to address the influence of marijuana and the effects it has on the developing brain. Youth often admit to using while still succeeding in academics and extracurricular activities. Despite the belief that marijuana increases focus, it is known to affect judgment and short-term memory. Many teens believe that recreational use is not harmful. However, experimentation can also lead to regular use. A possible personality change for regular users has been called Amotivation Syndrome. Symptoms of this include loss of ambition, increased apathy, loss of interest, and lack of concern over the future. Consistent with the mission of the Youth Service Project, we think it is important to look at the family as a whole, and not just the teenager as an individual. Revealing a familial history of drug or alcohol dependency may well be one of the most important pieces of information you can provide your teen. Teenagers who say they’ve learned about the risks of drugs from their parents are much less likely to try marijuana than those who say they learned nothing from them. These difficult discussions can only have a positive effect. Parents hesitate to have this dialogue partly because they are fearful they will plant an idea in their children’s mind. Luckily, there is no proof that this is true. As the statement above indicates, discussions and education are the primary tools of prevention. The bottom line is despite other modes of education, it is up to the parents to educate their children about the dangers of marijuana use. We recognize how difficult these conversations can be. Using specific teaching points can be helpful in initiating these discussions. Talking to your kids at pivotal times such as the transition to high school, when your child starts to drive, and leaving for college are great opportunities to initiate these discussions. There are vast opportunities within the community to raise awareness. Scarsdale & Edgemont Family Counseling Service provides drug and alcohol assessments, individual, and family therapy. Another community resource is the Drug and Alcohol Task Force (http://www.scarsdaletaskforce.com) and Parent Coffees designed to focus on the reality of alcohol and drugs. These resources work collaboratively with the Schools and the Village to form a “partnership for prevention.” For more information, please visit our website, http://www.sfcsinc.org. |
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| April 2007 | ||
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See how much you know about smoking pot and driving. Answer these four questions and then check your answers below. 1. Does Marijuana impair driving? a. Not a chance b. I'm not sure c. Yes, definitely
2. Which is more common among teen drivers, using marijuana or alcohol? a. Driving after marijuana use b. Driving after alcohol use c. About the same number of teen drivers use either marijuana or alcohol
3. In one year how many U.S. high school seniors under the influence of marijuana crash their cars? a. More than 5,000 b. More than 10,000 c. More than 30,000
4. According to a recent study, what percentage of shock-trauma patients who had been driving (a car or motorcycle) and gotten into a traffic accident had been smoking pot? a. 5% b. 12% c. 19% ANSWERS: 2. C Actually, marijuana and alcohol are used at about the same rate. Approximately one in six (15%) teens reported driving under the influence of marijuana, a number nearly equivalent to those who reported driving under the influence of alcohol (16%) despite higher prevalence of alcohol consumption among teens. 3. C An estimated 38,000 high school seniors in the United States reported that they crashed while driving under the influence of marijuana. Are you one of those drugged drivers? 4. C A study of patients in a shock-trauma unit that had been in traffic accidents revealed that 19 percent of crash victims under age 18 tested positive for marijuana.
This quiz from the website www.freevibe.com Check it out today! |
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| March 2007 | ||
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This Saint Patrick’s Day Don’t Press Your Luck. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 32 percent of all motor vehicle fatalities on St. Patrick’s Day in 2005 involved a driver or motorcycle operator with a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) wants to remind everyone to be the life of the party: designate a sober driver before celebrations begin. MADD encourages the public to use MADD’s Safe Party Guide available on MADD’s website. Safe party tips include: urging party hosts to be responsible by offering a variety of non-alcoholic beverages for designated drivers; never serving alcohol to those under the legal drinking age of 21; asking guests to appoint a designated driver before the evening begins; not letting guests mix their own drinks; and never allowing guests who have had too much to drink to drive home. The guide also provides non-alcoholic “mocktail” drink recipes and can be found at www.madd.org/party. |
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February 2007
Why 21?
What's Magic About the Number 21? Are you wondering what the deal is with the 21 minimum drinking age law? Sure, it's a law but it doesn't always feel like it. It's in all 50 states but do people pay attention to it? You might question why the laws were written with 21 as the minimum drinking age, what's so special about that age, and how the law came to be. Here's a lowdown on the most relevant information. A Walk Down Memory Lane Some folks think 21 was pulled out of the air. But despite what you may think, there are some pretty good reasons that age 21 was selected. Back in the late 1960's and early 70's a number of states lowered their drinking age from 21 to 18. In many of these states, research documented a significant increase in highway deaths of the teens affected by these laws. So, in the early 1980's a movement began to raise the drinking age back to 21. After the law changed back to 21, many of the states were monitored to check the difference in highway fatalities. Researchers found that teenage deaths in fatal car crashes dropped considerably - in some cases up to 28% - when the laws were moved back to 21. Like it or not, it is clear that more young people were killed on the highways when the drinking age was 18. Back in 1982 when the many of the states had minimum drinking ages of 18, 55% of all fatal crashes involving youth drivers involved alcohol. Since then, the alcohol-related traffic fatality rate has been cut in half! Research estimates that from 1975-2002 more than 21,000 lives have been saved. Hard to argue with that! A Strain in the Brain According to the book Buzzed, the use of alcohol by young people is especially frightening. We all hear about the dangers and consequences of underage drinking, but most of us know very little about how alcohol affects the brains of young people. Buzzed says we should look at what we do know about young brains like the fact that they don't finish developing until a person is around 20 years old. And one of the last regions to mature is intimately involved with the ability to plan and make complex judgments. Young brains are built to acquire new memories and are "built to learn." Buzzed reports that, "It is no accident that people are educated in our society during their early years, when they have more capacity for memory and learning. However, with this added memory capacity may come additional risks associated with the use of alcohol." Apparently on studies using animals, young brains are vulnerable to dangerous effects of alcohol, especially on learning and memory function. If this is true of people, then young people who drink may be "powerfully impairing the brain functions on which they rely so heavily for learning." So, in case there wasn't enough pressure to perform at school, at your job, or just in life, alcohol can prevent your use of your own brain. So in answer to the question "Why?" the 21 minimum age drinking laws were established to save your brain and your life. Sources: Kuhn, Cynthia, Swartzwelder, Scott, and Wilson, Wilkie. Buzzed -- The Straight Facts About the Most Used and Abused Drugs from Alcohol to Ecstasy. |
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| January 2007 | ||
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From TheAnitDrug.com... Over-the-Counter Drugs — Abuse Where You Least Think that drug abuse among teens is limited to illegal substances like marijuana and club drugs such as Ecstasy? Think again. If you're like most parents, you're probably not aware that a number of over-the-counter (OTC) products can potentially be abused by teens looking to get high. But it's important to educate yourself about the potential abuse of consumer products found right in your home. It is important to know the facts about OTC product and medication abuse and make a habit of closely monitoring the use of certain household substances. Talk with preteens and teens about the proper use of all medications (including those that are available over the counter) and the health risks associated with their abuse. One category of products sometimes abused by teenagers that few parents know about is OTC cough and cold remedies. The OTC cough and cold medications available in your local pharmacy, supermarket or convenience store are safe and effective when used as directed. But some youth are drawn to an ingredient found in nearly half of these medications called dextromethorphan, or DXM. When taken in excessive doses, dextromethorphan can produce a high or cause psychoactive effects. What is dextromethorphan or DXM? Why are teens abusing products that contain dextromethorphan? What does dextromethorphan do? Another major concern is the risk incurred when abusers get high and engage in activities requiring reasonable judgment and quick reactions, like driving or swimming. The effects induced by overdose of DXM can make these activities deadly. How can I tell if my child is abusing dextromethorphan? What else can I do?
Source: Scientific information provided by The National Institute on Drug Abuse |
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| December 2006 | ||||||||||||
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From TheAntiDrug.com...
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State what you don't intend and what you do intend
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