Prevention Council

Providing Substance Abuse Education, Information and Referral Services

Lock It Up! The Prevention Council advises to lock up all your alcohol so that it cannot be accessed by your children or their friends

Nearly half of kids between the ages of 12 and 14 who drink get their alcohol from their family or at home, according to a new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA). To ensure Saratoga communities are educated and empowered to address underage drinking in a critical way-removing access to alcohol, the Prevention Council launched a billboard campaign advising parents to lock up their alcohol.  The billboard’s message raises awareness that a teen’s #1 source of alcohol is in the home, and is a call to action to lock up alcohol in the home. Jennifer Wood, Prevention Council Outreach Director said “family members play an important role in reducing kids’ access to alcohol, which could prevent underage drinking and the dangers that come with it.”

The billboard’s release was timed to coincide with the prom and graduation season, the most dangerous time of year for teens, especially when it comes to drinking and driving. According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) one in three children under age 21 who died in alcohol-related accidents died during prom and graduation season. And for the past several years during prom weekend, approximately 300 teens have died in alcohol-related car accidents.

STOP DWI of Saratoga County is supporting this campaign which will utilize billboards in 4 Saratoga County locations:

  • Kinns Road near the Northway Overpass (Clifton Park)
  • Route 9 in Wilton near Smith Bridge Road
  • Route 50 in Ballston Spa near Mourningkill Creek
  • Route 4 & 32 in Mechanicville

 

How do you measure alcohol use among teenagers? The New York State Office on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) goes right to the source, asking the teens themselves.

Featured in:The Saratogian

Story By: Jennie Grey

Link to article can be found here: http://www.saratogian.com/general-news/20151214/survey-breaks-down-alcohol-marijuana-usage-among-students

SARATOGA SPRINGS >> How do you measure alcohol use among teenagers? The New York State Office on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) goes right to the source, asking the teens themselves.

The Alcohol and Substance Abuse Prevention Council of Saratoga County administers OASAS’s anonymous Youth Development Survey to participating Saratoga Springs City School District students in grades 7-12 every two years. The October 2014 survey results revealed key facts about increased drinking in older students and correspondingly low rates of use in younger teens.

Prevention Council Coalition Development Director Robin Lyle presented the 2014 results to the Saratoga Springs Board of Education at the board’s Dec. 8 meeting.

The Prevention Council is a community-based nonprofit organization. Its mission as a prevention specialist is to provide education, information and referral services on the subjects of alcohol, tobacco, other drug and violence prevention to individuals and communities throughout Saratoga County.

“While alcohol use by Saratoga Springs district ninth- and 10th-graders is at or below state levels, use by 11th- and 12th-graders exceeds state and national averages, and has increased 16 percent since the previous survey in 2012,” Lyle said. “Further, regular alcohol use by 12th graders is 9 percentage points higher than the state average and 23 percentage points higher than the national rate.”

The level of drinking among the Saratoga Springs high school upperclassmen is on a par with the national college underage drinking, Lyle said. Some 61 percent of the high-schoolers reported using alcohol in the past month.

Marijuana use among 10th-, 11th- and 12th-graders is above the state usage rates. Regular marijuana use for 12th-graders is 8 percentage points higher than the state average and 15 percentage points higher than the national average.

“There’s also an increased use of electronic cigarettes and vaping,” Lyle said.

There’s good news as well. Middle school alcohol and marijuana use is significantly below the state rates and has remained consistently low throughout the past decade. Also, binge-drinking among high-schoolers has declined 24 percent since 2012.

Saratoga County communication is open: More students report having received prevention messages and having talked to their parents about substance use than other students across the state.

District Superintendent Michael Piccirillo encouraged the use of positive messages about choosing not to use alcohol or drugs.

“For example, we have a series of posters up in the high school that help dispel the myth that everyone is doing this,” he said.

On the other hand, some families aren’t watching out for their teens, since high school students are most often consuming alcohol at private homes, getting it from friends or acquaintances who are younger than 21, interestingly. Students also reported getting alcohol at concerts and sporting events, at a higher rate than their peers across the state.

“Of the 11th- and 12th-graders who reported using alcohol, 68 percent said either they were not caught or, if caught, did not receive consequences from their parents,” Lyle said.

The Prevention Council made several recommendations for parent, student and community focus on alcohol and marijuana use.

For parents, the nonprofit suggested raising parent/community awareness of risks of use, and increasing parent/teen conversations about expectations, family policies and consequences of use.

For students, the recommendations included promoting awareness of actual norms of substance use by peers and reinforcing periodically with positive messaging, and raising awareness of the risks of substance use.

For the community, the council proposed partnering with law enforcement to address underage drinking parties and promoting an underage drinking hotline to report such parties.

The Youth Development Survey was administered in-school in October 2014. A total of 3,186 individual student responses were included in the final report. Of these, 1,084 were middle and 2,102 were high school students.

And how do you know the students were telling the truth about such a complicated and personal subject? Following receipt of the surveys, all survey forms were checked to determine the validity and reliability of the data. A small percentage of students were judged to have returned invalid survey data. For example, students who claimed to use all drugs at the highest levels of use were eliminated from the final data set. In total, five separate checks of the logical consistency and validity of the students’ responses were conducted.

Muddy crowd loves Prevention Council’s Tuff Enuff obstacle course

Featured in The Saratogian

June 6, 2015

Story By Jennie Grey

Link to full article can be found here: http://www.saratogian.com/general-news/20150606/muddy-crowd-loves-prevention-councils-tuff-enuff-obstacle-course

Ayla Olsen is 11 years old, the youngest of four siblings and the only girl, but she kept up with her brothers and had just as much fun during the June 6 Tuff Enuff race, which raises money annually for the nonprofit Prevention Council. Trina and Corbin Olsen could pick their daughter out of the muddy crowd of 500 runners by her Disney World T-shirt, which shows a certain small green personage on the back and comments, “Judge me by my size, do you?” on the front. Ayla’s race number just covered Yoda’s question mark.

After crossing the finish line at the Henning Road BOCES campus, Ayla came up to her parents, smiling, shivering and thoroughly drenched, from her sneakers to her hair tie. She had come in 25th in this, her first Tuff Enuff.

“I had fun,” she said. “Now I’d like a hot bath.”

Her brother Ross, 12, shivering cheerfully next to her, added, “Or a hot shower.”

During the race, the Olsen children had encountered plenty of water; alas, none of it very warm or very clear. Tuff Enuff is all about the mud – deep, squishy, oozy mud stacked into hills and carved into ditches crossed by logs. BOCES heavy equipment students designed and built the course.

“Helping youth navigate life’s challenges’ is the Prevention Council’s slogan,” said event coordinator Deirdre Ladd, a marketing strategist at Marketing for Good. “So having an obstacle course in which participants have to crawl uphill, help each other and get down in the muddy trenches seemed like a great idea for a community fundraiser.”

In Saratoga County, the Prevention Council has spent 35 years working with the community to improve health and wellness, and to reduce the impact of drug, alcohol and other substance use.

“This race is our mission in motion,” said Prevention Council Executive Director Janine Stuchin.

Children had their own race first, on a slightly less slippery part of the course; then adults ran a longer 5K around the campus and through the obstacles.

BOCES criminal justice classes helped with parking and crowd control. This year, the culinary arts students made take-out picnic food for purchase after the race.

Everyone started out clean and cheerful, and ended up completely filthy, but still enthusiastic — sometimes more so.

“I was the first female finisher!” said Ashley Weller, 27, of South Glens Falls.

 

She ran last year with her cousin, 15-year-old Darwin Weller. This year, they had both set out to better their times, and they did. They also took along Taylor Beaury, the 8-year-old son of Ashley’s coworker.

“That was big water,” Beaury said, dripping.

Ashley agreed: “I think there was more water than last year.”

She had volunteered at Tuff Enuff two years ago and found the race so much fun that she just couldn’t stand on the sidelines another time.

Tim Luse, a 13-year-old Maple Avenue Middle School student, had run with a group of his friends. At the finish, he trotted over to his parents, oozing water from his sneakers, but still smiling.

“It was fun,” he said. “But it was hard to go through all of that — a lot harder than I thought it would be.”

Luse’s mother, Kyle, was prepared with a post-race bag of towels and clean clothes, which relieved his father, Tim Sr. (Many Tuff Enuff parents happily cheer on their kids, but share a small worry about the family car.)

“We are extremely proud of Tim,” Kyle Luse said. “He finished strong. He can have whatever he wants for lunch now.”

Tim Luse Sr. said, “Probably Smashburger.”

No Community Has Immunity from Heroin

Photo: MarkBolles.com

Story by Arthur Gonick, Saratoga Today NewspaperSARATOGA SPRINGS— We tend to wax romantic about our community. And in truth, compared to other communities, we are relatively safe. As such, we sometimes fall into an illusion that we are insulated from the worst of society’s ills.

But at street level, there’s no such illusion. This is the reality Sergeant Tim Sicko and the Saratoga Springs Police Investigation Division sees:

“Just in the last four to five months, we’ve seen over a half-dozen overdoses from heroin.” He said. Moreover, “the number of heroin buys my (undercover) officers make have risen significantly over the past two and one-half years I’ve been in charge of the division.” The Investigation Division oversees both the drug and criminal units.

When asked to estimate the percentage, Sergeant Sicko commented. “Undercover buys of heroin were maybe 2 out of 100 just a couple of years ago, when we saw mostly crack cocaine and pills on the street. Today, I would estimate it’s closer to 50 percent.” He said.

The Prevention Council of Saratoga confirms that a significant uptick in heroin usage in this community has occurred, as part of a nationwide trend. Executive Director Janine Stuchin noted:

“No one starts off on heroin. National and local studies have shown that the recent upsurge in heroin use is directly connected with prescription pain killer (opiate) abuse.”

The purpose of this article is not to sensationalize or unduly alarm, but to educate and advocate that if your head is in the sand about heroin in Saratoga County and you are thinking “it can’t happen here,” take a look around.

“It” already is happening.

And while no one will purport that Saratoga County has as bad a problem as some of the larger and more urban cities, to deny the insidious presence of this most insidious of drugs would be irresponsible.

Both Ms. Stuchin and Sgt. Sicko cite the relative inexpensiveness of heroin as a factor in its recent rise in usage. “Heroin is less expensive than illicit prescription pain killers such as oxycodone, explaining the trend toward increased heroin use.” Ms. Stuchin noted. Sgt. Sicko also noted the “difficult, painful withdrawal process” that is involved from heroin once addicted that will naturally keep people looking for their next fix.

Compounding this is the phenomenon of the “chase after the initial high,” as Sgt. Sicko put it, which would lead a user who might have started snorting heroin to graduate to a needle for a greater effect.

Finally, you have the factor that, according to any study, the profile of the heroin user is younger than ever. “One of the recent overdoses we had was someone in their 20s,” Sgt. Sicko noted, “fortunately, he was not a fatality.”

For the user, Sgt. Sicko noted that a factor compounding the danger of heroin are the other substances that are lacing it; substances which can be even more lethal than the heroin itself. “You don’t know what you are accepting or where it came from.” Sgt. Sicko noted. “In contrast, you can look at a given pill and if you are savvy, recognize the manufacturer – although this is not foolproof.”

Heroin dealers attempt to mitigate this by engaging in a “branding” exercise: Labeling their nickel or dime bags with a logo or markings that would tend to inspire a false sense of confidence – I’ve bought this before, it’s OK – yet, Sergeant Sicko rightly points out that the street dealer has little knowledge of where today’s batch came from, if they were inclined to care in the first place.

He spread an array of evidence bags before us and my eyes kept going to one dealer’s mark.

All I could think of was: How desperate would you have to be to shoot up from a bag that is marked “Game Over.”?

But is the game over? Hardly.

“We have a number of full-time people who are on top of this daily,” Sgt. Sicko notes, “you’re seeing a significant increase in heroin arrests because our people, working with other law enforcement divisions such as the State Police, as well as a network of informants, are battling this daily and we have no intention of pulling back.”

“We are nowhere near the level of activity of other cities precisely because we are fortunate to have a group of young officers who are dedicated and on top of things… when a dealer comes to town to set up shop, we usually know who that person is already,” he continued. “But it’s a matter of constant vigilance.”

In that connection, Sgt. Sicko noted that while the profile of the heroin user the police are has gotten younger, this is not a major problem at either the High School (where he lauded the work of Officer Lloyd Davis who is stationed there), or on the Skidmore campus at this point.

The Prevention Council confirms this, to some extent. “Our data from student surveys in Saratoga County show about eight percent of high school students are involved in prescription drug abuse and one percent reporting using heroin,” noted Janine Stuchin.

Any law enforcement officer would acknowledge that even with a consistent focus on interdicting heroin supply, long-term effectiveness of any effort is dependent upon programs that educate and impact on demand. Sgt. Sicko, while acknowledging that the restoration of D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) funding in the city is something on his “wish list,” cites that the education programs provided by the Prevention Council are invaluable.

“The role of the Prevention Council in addressing the scourge of heroin in our community is to be preventive rather than reactive.” Ms. Stuchin said. We do this though programs, like Too Good for Drugs, taught in many local school districts, which educate children on the inherent dangers.”

“We regularly collaborate with law enforcement with drug take-back days. For instance, the next National Prescription Take-Back Day will be Saturday, April 26 and we will be announcing local sites that will be participating.”

But both the police and Prevention Council note that the real education and greatest impact is an outgrowth of effective parenting. “Parents should not be afraid to talk to their kids and find out ‘what do you know about this stuff?’ Look at who they are hanging out with and take note of changes in behavior and appearance, for instance.” Sgt. Sicko says.

While it would be nice to have an ending here, in fact this is a story about the process of progress, the ebb and flow of societal struggles and responses; perhaps a battle that will never be won, but nonetheless a battle worth undertaking daily.

Survey Aims to Assess Parent Awareness of Kids’ Drug and Alcohol Use

January 28, 2013

POSTED BY Laura Rappaport
Saratoga Wire

What do parents know about their kids’ drug and alcohol habits? That’s a question the Saratoga Partnership for Prevention asks every two years.

The Partnership is asking parents of kids in grades 7-12 in the Saratoga Springs City School District to take a brief online survey about adolescent alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use by going to Survey Monkey. The process is completely anonymous and takes less than 15 minutes.

The parent questionnaire is the companion survey to the Youth Prevention Needs Assessment given every other fall to all Saratoga Springs 7th – 12th graders. It’s designed to track the attitudes and perceptions of a random sample of Saratoga Springs parents, says Robin Ambrosino, marketing and communications manager for the Prevention Council, which houses the partnership.

It’s also a way to gauge the similarities and differences between parents’ perceptions of teen behavior and the behavior teens actually report. Results of both surveys will be publicized in April.

“We want to find out if parents think their kids are engaging in the behaviors that kids say they are,” Ambrosino says. “What we’ve found over the years is that parents underestimated by a pretty large margin the behaviors kids are participating in,” she says. What it comes down to is that many parents think their high school kids are not drinking beer or smoking pot, but kids report they are doing those risky – and illegal – things.

The good news, however, is that drinking is down at Saratoga Springs High School. Ambrosino says that in 2008, drinking by SSHS seniors was well above the national average, but it’s been coming down over the past few years.

Sixth graders are no longer surveyed because in the past their answers showed such a low rate of drug and alcohol use.

She notes that while there is a big spike in drinking and drug use when kids enter ninth grade, that jump isn’t actually as big as it’s reputed to be.

Thus, she says, one goal of the Partnership for Prevention is to help the community change perceptions and the culture at the high school. So, while kids think it’s cool to drink in high school, the community needs to show them it’s not – and kids need to be aware that just because they’ve started high school doesn’t mean that everyone’s experimenting with alcohol.

“Fewer kids drink than they think,” Ambrosino says.

She said while some kids inflate their usages rates, the surveys have built-in checks and balances that help weed out questionnaires that have inconsistent responses.

In order to have a representative adult sample, 350 parents need to complete the 23 questions on the online form. Parents’ answers will be used to help the Partnership plan parenting programs, community events that send consistent messages about underage substance use, and ways to support families as their children progress through the teen years, Ambrosino says.

The Saratoga Partnership for Prevention is a program of the Prevention Council. It is made up of youth, parents, and individuals representing key sectors and organizations concerned about youth in the Saratoga Springs school district.

The survey continues through mid-February.

Kids Targeted as Replacement Smokers

November 2012
By Pam Fisher
Capital District Parenting Pages

On November 15, The American Cancer Society is marking its Great American Smokeout.  For 37 years, the date has encouraged smokers to make a plan to quit, or to quit smoking that day.  The occasion is also a great time for parents to talk with their children about the dangers of tobacco use, and for families to familiarize themselves with all forms of tobacco products and marketing.

According to the 2012 Surgeon General’s Report, 9 out of 10 smokers start smoking by age 18.  Research in the U.S. and abroad suggests that exposure to in-store tobacco promotions is a primary cause of youth smoking, a factor more influential than peer pressure, and having nearly as much of an effect as having a household member who smokes.  The tobacco industry spends $1 million a day in New York State alone on marketing their products, and nationally, $12.5 billion annually on advertising and promotions—more than the amount spent to market junk food, soda, and alcohol combined.   With one licensed tobacco retailer for every 194 children in New York, it is critical our children are well-informed to make healthy and safe choices.

Area parents are concerned, and for good reason.  Tobacco marketing has the greatest impact on kids — the “replacement smokers” the industry needs for the 443,000 Americans who die every year from tobacco-related diseases.  Community members voiced their concerns about tobacco marketing in a 2011 community survey conducted by Siena Research Institute (SRI) across 17 counties in the capital region.  The survey indicated overwhelming support for restrictions on tobacco sales to protect children from tobacco marketing, demonstrating that two thirds of the residents of the 17 counties agree tobacco products should not be sold in stores located near schools.  56% think tobacco products should not even be visible in stores.

Take a look at most local convenience stores and gas stations.  Ads are often placed near candy or toys, strategically located to entice youth, and on the front of counters less than five feet in height.  Tobacco companies pay stores billions to ensure that cigarettes and other tobacco products are advertised heavily, displayed prominently and priced cheaply to appeal to children and current tobacco users.

Also part of tobacco companies’ marketing strategy is the introduction of a growing number of smaller cigars, called little cigars or cigarillos, featuring sweet flavors and colorful packaging. While New York imposes the highest excise tax on cigarettes in the nation ($4.35 per package), cigarillos can be purchased at cheap prices, and come in flavors such as peach, apple, grape and cherry.

Tobacco companies have also significantly increased marketing of smokeless tobacco products, introducing an array of colorfully-packaged and sweetly-flavored products that in many cases look, taste and are packaged like candy. Chewing tobacco is now available in kid-friendly flavors such as cherry, apple and citrus.  New dissolvable and easily concealed tobacco products, called sticks, strips and orbs, are also growing in popularity among teenagers.  These products look like mints, breath strips and toothpicks, and can be used discreetly—even during school hours.

While smokeless tobacco is often marketed as “the healthy alternative” to cigarettes, the Surgeon General has determined that the use of oral snuff can lead to oral cancer, gum disease, and nicotine addiction.  Smokeless tobacco use during youth can also lead to a lifetime of addiction and, frequently, to cigarette use, as the nicotine addiction created by smokeless use ultimately leads to habitual smoking.

What can parents do to protect their children?  Talk about it.  Know that there are options for local governments in New York to reduce youth exposure to tobacco marketing.  We can limit the exposure at the point-of-sale through display regulations, reduce the number of tobacco retailers through licensing, limit the proximity to schools and other youth organizations through zoning, and eliminate tobacco sales in pharmacies.

For this year’s Great American Smokeout, perhaps it will be a day many smoking parents quit for good.  And for those who want their children never to start, let this day serve as a time to talk to our children, and to inform and protect them from ever becoming a “replacement.”