Youth Leadership Project News:

  The North Country Prevention Youth Councils will be in Action this Fall!

The North Country Community Substance Abuse Prevention Program, spearheaded by Project Director Bob Thompson, was able to establish 9 Prevention Youth Councils (PYC) in 9 of the region's high schools through the Strategic Prevention Framework-State Incentive (SPF SIG) Grant awarded to North Country Health Consortium. The PYCs consist of middle and high school level youth serving to conduct prevention projects in their schools and communities in order to raise awareness of the prevalence and dangers of substance use/abuse.

The 9 PYCs reside in Woodsville High School, Profile School, Stratford Public School, Littleton High School, Colebrook Academy, Berlin High School, Stewartstown School, Pittsburg School, and White Mountains Regional High School.

The PYCs are geared up to conduct two campaigns this fall. The first campaign is an Alcohol Awareness Campaign involving the youth distributing information and posters to local businesses and health centers in order to spread the reach of our prevention messaging. Another piece to this campaign involves the youth staffing a prevention display at their school's Open House night in order to reach parents with proactive messaging in regard to safeguarding their alcohol and medications at home and talking with their children about substance abuse and the dangers associated with such use.

The second campaign is a Banner Swap Campaign. This campaign entails youth approaching store owners with "pro-community" banners that read "The North Country Welcomes You!" and requesting that the stores "swap out" their alcohol promotional banners welcoming tourists with these community-friendly banners. The youth will be equipped with talking points regarding the number of alcohol advertisements and amount of alcohol messaging youth are exposed to before they are even of legal age to consume alcohol. The goal of this project is to change the signage in our North Country communities as an evidence-based approach, proven to create positive outcomes in regard to reducing underage drinking.

The North Country Community Substance Abuse Prevention Program is excited to have the PYCs on board to help us in achieving our mission of "creating healthier communities for our children and families."

For more information on the Youth Leadership Project or
to apply for a Youth Grant, please visit:
http://www.nchc-csap.org/youthgrants.html.

Back to School Alert:

A "Pharm" Party is Not a Party at a Farm!

Adopted from the MEDTOX Journal September 2010 Public Safety Substance Abuse Newsletter

When a child gets invited to a friend's farm party, you might picture meandering horses, slow moving cattle, clucking chickens, and a red barn. Guess again. The child is likely being invited to a pharm party. Pharm is a euphemism for pharmacy. An invited child is expected to raid the family medicine cabinet to gather up pharmaceuticals to take to the party so the medications can be shared and experimented with. Also, instead of doing all the farming from the family medicine cabinet, kids often ride their bicycles to the local grocery store and head for the cough and cold aisle.  There, over-the-counter drugs can be purchased and then taken alone or mixed with other drugs (i.e. alcohol or Vicodin) to produce a recreational drug high.
 
The most sought-after over-the-counter medications for pharm parties contain chlorpheniramine and dextromethorphan. Chlorpheniramine is an antihistamine that also produces a moderate sedative effect, which is why most of these over-the-counter drugs contain a warning about drowsiness and the need to use caution operating machinery. Dextromethorphan ("Dexy's," "DXM," or "DM") is a cough suppressant.  When used in high doses as a recreational drug, the resulting effect is remarkably similar to that of the dissociative anesthetic class of drugs.  The common indicators associated with those who abuse dextromethorphan often are the same as those exhibited by someone under the influence of ketamine or PCP (Angel Dust).  When kids ingest compounds of chlorpheneramine and dextromethorphan in over-the-counter medications, they may exhibit the following signs and symptoms:

• Dilated pupils (7.0 mm in diameter or greater)
• Rapid resting heart rate (90 beats per minute or more)
• Increased blood pressure (140/90 and above)
• Dry mouth
• Slow or slurred speech
• Poor balance
• Blank stare-disconnected from surroundings
• Flushing of the face and upper torso  

Adult users of dextromethorphan products frequently engage in poly-drug use, combining it with marijuana (cannabis), alcohol, Ecstacy (MDMA), methamphetamine, or prescription medications, such as Vicodin, Oxycontin and Soma.  At present, neither dextromethorphan nor chlorpheneramine are scheduled under the Federal Controlled Substances Act. Dextromethorphan is the more commonly abused drug of this over-the-counter "cough and cold" duo. It is unclear if the current levels of abuse will be sufficient enough to compel regulators to assign it to some level of status in the Controlled Substances Act.

To sign up for the MEDTOX Journal Monthly Newsletter, please visit: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs079/1102329572658/archive/1102427756036.html

For more information on the Controlled Substance Act, please visit: http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/csa.html

Youth-Friendly Tobacco Videos  Channeled on YouTube

Adopted from CADCA's Coalitions Online Weekly Bulletin 9-9-10

Pro-tobacco videos have a significant presence on YouTube, a study published in the journal Tobacco Control found.

Researchers in New Zealand searched on the popular video site for the five leading, non-Chinese tobacco brands in the world: Marlboro, L&M, Benson and Hedges, Winston and Mild Seven, on YouTube. From the results, they selected the "most viewed" videos and analyzed the English language videos for content on how it seemed to frame tobacco (positive, negative, complex, unclear or neutral light).

According to the study, 71.2 percent of the 163 videos analyzed had pro-tobacco content, using themes like celebrities and movies, sports, music or archival footages (such as an ad using the Flintstones smoking Winston cigarettes). Of these videos, 71.2 percent contained the brand name of the tobacco product in the title.

Lead author, Lucy Elkins of the Department of Public Health at the University of Otago, in Wellington, New Zealand, and two of her co-authors, noted that "over 20 of the videos examined appeared to be very professionally made."

A World Health Organization treaty requires its 168 participating countries to ban all forms of tobacco advertisements and sponsorships. Unlike television, YouTube is a user-generated site that is not regulated for content control. The site does not take down videos unless it infringes its standards if they receive complaints from viewers.

Two previous studies examining tobacco content on YouTube found that many videos "were clearly amateur but felt that some may have been covert advertisements," wrote Elkins. "Again, they could not tell whether these ads were placed on YouTube independently or by tobacco companies."

Philip Morris USA, maker of the Marlboro brand, said it does not use the online video site to market its products, because marketing and sales of cigarettes in the United States are heavily regulated.

But Elkins and the other co-authors wrote that: "The findings of this study suggest that there are many highly viewed videos on YouTube that contain specific tobacco brand content, much of it likely to appeal to youth."
 

Granite State Conference on Addiction:

Date: October 13th, 2010

Time: 9am-5pm*

Location: Radisson Hotel, 700 Elm Street, Manchester, NH

This is an excellent opportunity to get connected/network. It is an opportunity to hear about the "future" of prevention and treatment. There will be workshops on recovery, treatment, and prevention. The prevention session will have an advocacy piece in which CEUs will be available for.

This collaborative event was brought to you by:

-NH Alcohol and Other Drug Service Providers Association
-NH Alcohol & Drug Abuse Counselors Association
-Friends of Recovery-NH (FOR-NH)
-New Futures
-NH Training Institute on Addictive Disorders
-Funding support provided by:
-NH Charitable Foundation
-New Hampshire Training Institute on Addictive Disorders

*Directly following the event will be the 12th Annual New Futures Leadership Recognition and Awards Celebration from 5pm-7pm at the Radisson Hotel.This event is to recognize and celebrate the contributions made at the local and state level to reduce underage alcohol problems and increase access to treatment in New Hampshire.

To sign up for the conference, or for more information, including the Agenda for the event, please visit: http://www.new-futures.org/calendar/63/305-Granite-State-Conference-on-Addiction.html