Vision
Racine County is a place where youth assets are increasing and all youth are healthy, involved and successful members of the community.
Mission
The Racine County Youth Coalition engages agencies, business partners, communities, families and schools, to promote and foster positive change in community practices, public policy, and youth programming in order to build assets and reduce risk behaviors including substance abuse among all Racine County young people.
Interested in joining the RCYC?
Contact Seth Kuranz at Focus on Community for more information.
(262) 632-6200
rcyc@focusracine.org
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In This Issue
Youth Exposure to Alcohol Ads on TV Growing Faster Than Adults
Lowering Drinking Age Would Not Reduce On-Campus Binging
U.S. to Crack Down on Web Drug Stores
Monitoring the Future Survey Finds Increased Marijuana Use Among 8th, 10th, and 12th Grades
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Youth Exposure to Alcohol Ads on TV Growing Faster Than Adults
Youth exposure to alcohol advertising on U.S. television increased 71 percent between 2001 and 2009, according to a report released today by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Despite efforts by alcohol companies to strengthen their self-regulatory standards, the average number of ads seen by youth watching television increased from 217 in 2001 to 366 in 2009, or one alcohol ad per day.
"One a day is great for vitamins but not for young people being exposed to alcohol advertising," said David H. Jernigan, PhD, CAMY director. "This is a significant and troubling escalation, and shows the ineffectiveness of the industry's current voluntary standards."
In 2003, the trade associations representing beer and distilled spirits companies joined the wine industry in committing to place ads only when the underage audience composition is 30 percent or less. Their previous threshold had been 50 percent.
The report, which is available at www.camy.org, shows that the rise of distilled spirits advertising on cable television is driving the increase. Youth exposure to distilled spirits advertising grew by nearly 3,000 percent from 2001 to 2009, primarily on cable. The majority of youth exposure to alcoholic beverage advertising on cable occurred on programming that youth ages 12 to 20 were more likely to be watching than adults 21 and above.
To learn more, please visit www.camy.org.
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Lowering Drinking Age Would Not Reduce On-Campus Binging
New research suggests lowering the drinking age would not reduce on-campus binging, ScienceDaily reported Dec. 12.
As part of a coalition known as the Amethyst Initiative, high-ranking administrators from 135 US colleges and universities have been asking policymakers to lower the drinking age in an effort to reduce binge drinking on campus. According to the initiative, students would learn to drink more responsibly if they could consume alcohol in public establishments where moderate social drinking is modeled.
Researchers from several institutions collaborated to develop a mathematical model that could predict patterns of on-campus consumption if the drinking age were reduced to test the theory. Campuses near drinking establishments with low enforcement of underage drinking laws (i.e., those that do not check IDs frequently), or those in which students grossly overestimated the amount that constitutes "normal" drinking by peers, might see a reduction in on-campus bingeing. However, binge drinking could increase on campuses with no or low "misperception levels" present, according to the study.
Since there was no evidence that high misperceptions of peer drinking are the norm, it was highly unlikely that lowering the drinking age would reduce student binge drinking, said Jawail Rasul, Ph.D., a researcher at BioMedware Corporation in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and lead author of the study.
An additional risk to consider, said the authors, is that alcohol-related problems, such as driving under the influence, tend to go up when alcohol is more readily available to young adults.
The study was published in the January 2011 issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
To learn more, please visit www.JoinTogether.org.
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U.S. to Crack Down on Web Drug Stores
The United States government is cracking down on the sale of drugs over the internet without prescriptions, the BBC reported Dec. 17.
Researchers estimate that about one in every six Americans, or 36 million people, have used unlicensed online pharmacies to buy drugs. The initiative -- said to be part of an Obama administration plan to address counterfeit medicines -- aims to shut down illegal online pharmacies and raise awareness that their products are not safe.
"Those who sell prescription drugs online without a valid prescription are operating illegally, undercutting the laws that were put in place to protect patients, and are thereby endangering the public health," said Victoria Espinel, an intellectual property enforcement coordinator.
Partners in the initiative include Google; online-payment processors like Visa and PayPal; and online hosting companies like Network Solutions. The companies will target illegal web pharmacies by shutting down web sites, blocking ads and payments. They will also work with law enforcement and underwrite public awareness campaigns to educate the public about the risks of buying prescription drugs online.
Two organizations -- The Partnership at Drugfree.org and the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies -- will research why so many Americans have used online drug stores, what they purchase, and why some perceptions of the risk involved vary so widely.
To learn more, please visit www.JoinTogether.org.
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Monitoring the Future Survey Finds Increased Marijuana Use Among 8th, 10th, and 12th Grades
CADCA Calls for Increased Investment in Drug-Free Communities Program
Washington, D.C. - The 2010 Monitoring the Future (MTF) Survey, released today by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the University of Michigan, showed an increase in marijuana use rates among all grades measured in the survey - 8th, 10th and 12th graders. Particularly concerning are that more youth report smoking marijuana on a daily basis, with 6.1 percent of high school seniors, 3.3 percent of 10th graders, and 1.2 percent of 8th graders reporting daily use, compared to last year's rates of 5.2 percent, 2.8 percent, and 1.0 percent, respectively. Among 12th graders it was at its highest point since the early 1980's. The perceived risk of regular marijuana use also declined among 10th and 12th graders, suggesting that marijuana use among youth may continue its upward trend.
Another drug that showed an increased in use was Ecstasy, despite having been on a downward trend for the past several years. Equally concerning is that steady declines in cigarette smoking appear to have stalled in all three grades after several years of improvement on most measures.
"The 2010 Monitoring the Future survey findings are extremely disturbing but not surprising, since last year's survey showed a softening of attitudes about marijuana use. And with states debating measures to legalize marijuana or allow marijuana for so called medical purposes, it's no wonder more young people are daily pot smokers," said CADCA Chairman and CEO General Arthur T. Dean. "Let's take this as a wake up call and invest in comprehensive drug prevention programs that show results, like the Drug Free Communities program.
"The Drug Free Communities (DFC) Program, which funds local, grassroots community coalitions across the country, is one of those programs. Thanks to the DFC program, there are hundreds of community coalitions developing and implementing strategies to tackle local substance abuse problems, getting at the root causes of drug use in their communities."
According to an independent evaluation of the Drug Free Communities Support Program, the prevalence of 30-day use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana was lower for high school students in DFC-funded communities than among a nationally representative sample of high school students taking the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). The evaluation also found that the DFC program is responsible for a reduction of 181,000 youth using alcohol, a reduction of 200,000 youth using tobacco, and a reduction of nearly 115,000 youth using marijuana.
During a press conference today in Washington, D.C., Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, called the results disappointing, noting that the increased marijuana rates are due largely to the mixed messages youth are receiving around marijuana legalization and medical marijuana.
"All this talk about marijuana being medicine is incorrect and it's sending youth the wrong message. We need parents and other adults who influence children as full partners in teaching young people about the risks and harms associated with drug use, including marijuana," he said.
After marijuana, prescription and over-the-counter medications account for most of the top drugs abused by 12th graders in the past year. Among 12th graders, past year non-medical use of Vicodin decreased from 9.7 percent to 8 percent. However, past year abuse of OxyContin remains unchanged across the three grades and has increased in 10th graders over the past 5 years. When asked about ways to address prescription drug abuse, ONDCP Director Kerlikowske pointed to the DFC program as something that can make a real difference in tackling this and other drug problems.
On a positive note, the survey showed that alcohol use has continued to decline among high school seniors with past year use falling from 43.5 percent to 41.2 percent and alcohol binge drinking declining from 25.2 percent to 23.2 percent.
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