Safety First Newsletter: Reality Based-Drug Education

[ReformMaryJaneLaws]

Check out the website. The Fact Sheet on Marijuana is quite fair. *






SAFETY FIRST http://www.safety1st.org
...on the web

Safety First eNews: Tuesday, July 20, 2004



CONTENTS:

1. In This Issue

A. Dear Friends of Safety First

B. Ask the Experts
http://www.safety1st.org/ask_experts.html

C. News
http://www.safety1st.org/news.html

D. Facts
http://www.safety1st.org/drugfacts.html

E. Still to Come

Dear Friends of Safety First,

I have just come from the 108th Annual National PTA Convention in Anaheim, California, where Safety First sponsored a busy booth in the Exhibitors' Hall and I facilitated a workshop with my colleague, Rod Skager, PhD, called “Getting Real About Teens, Drugs, and Drug Education.” Over the course of three days we spoke with hundreds of parents. We also conducted two focus groups, led by a professional moderator, to learn more about how parents feel about the drug issue. What we learned is that parents are hungry for our materials and find our approach to teenage alcohol and other drug use to be both fresh and valuable. I am more convinced than ever that our highest priority must be to get the word out so that more parents know about Safety First.

The beginning of a new school year is always a great opportunity to reach out to parents, but to do so we need your help. Would you consider becoming a Safety First volunteer? The job is simple, but so important. We will provide you with free materials to distribute at PTA meetings and other gatherings, as well as our “Let’s Talk” video if you want to facilitate a workshop yourself.

If you’d like to be a volunteer, please write to me at info@safety1st.org and let me know. Just indicate in your email how many copies you think you will need and we will mail them to you before school starts.

Thank you very much for any help you can give in spreading the word! Have a wonderful summer.

Sincerely,
Marsha Rosenbaum, PhD

ASK THE EXPERTS

Ask the Experts, our exclusive column answers tough questions from teachers and parents about what’s going on in the world of teens and how to talk with young people about drugs. This installment (http://www.safety1st.org/ask_experts_current.html) includes answers to these questions from our readers:

1. How trustworthy is NIDA's school-based curriculum? Do you have any suggestions for good, school-based material?

2. What is the latest science and research on what marijuana does to the human body?

3. Why is the “War on Drugs” still being fought in America, while in Europe drug policy is taking a softer approach that has better results?

4. Doesn't teaching students the safest ways to use drugs encourage drug use?

5. My son has been in the YMCA substance abuse youth program for about 6 months and about a week ago I found some money and about five bags of marijuana. What do we do?

6. If an employee comes to work and appears to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, do we have the right to send him/her for an immediate drug test? Or do we just send him/her home for the day?

7. If 32% of 12th graders have easy access to heroin, why are the warehouses that must be in every major city to accomplish this marketing not being busted?

8. Is it true that teens who are convicted of a drug-related offense are not allowed to borrow money for college?

9. Our school system is in the process of revising its alcohol and drug policy and one Board of Education member feels that the mandatory 70-day suspension from extra curricular activities for first-time offenses of intoxication or possession is a deterrent. Do you know of any research to support or refute this?

10. What drug prevention programs have the schools tried for middle school students? Which have been successful and which have not? As a parent or a teacher, what can I do to prevent drug abuse?

If you have questions about drugs or drug education, here's your chance to ask the experts:
http://www.safety1st.org/ask_experts.html

We will research the answer and post it in the next edition.


NEWS

Commentary

Safety First regularly posts news and commentary about teens and drugs that may help parents and educators:
http://www.safety1st.org/news.html

You can read opinion pieces by Dr. Marsha Rosenbaum about how the Safety First approach could have helped prevent the death of a local girl, and how random student drug testing is not an effective way to curb drug use or abuse, as well as an opinion piece by Dr. Mitch Earleywine about how misinformation continues to plague drug education.

Safety First in Chinese!

We are delighted to announce that we have received a $10,000 grant from the San Francisco Foundation to translate Safety First: A Reality-Based Approach to Teens, Drugs, and Drug Education and Getting Real About Teens & Drugs into Chinese! Over the course of the next year, we plan to distribute 10,000 copies to Chinese-speaking parents in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the world, so if you or anyone you know has a need for these materials, please contact us at 415.921.4987 or info@safety1st.org.

http://www.safety1st.org/news.html

FACTS

Safety First is proud to provide honest, science-based fact sheets that do not resort to scare tactics for teachers and parents. Please visit the site today, where you can learn more about alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, GHB, heroin, inhalants, ketamine, LSD, methamphetamine, OxyContin, and tobacco. Stay tuned for our upcoming fact sheet on mushrooms.

http://www.safety1st.org/drugfacts.html

STILL TO COME

Look out for a new section on drug treatment for young people on www.safety1st.org!



If you would like to be informed about Safety First and policies about teens and drugs, sign up to receive our eUpdates at: http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/m...p?ms=safe1stty

We encourage distribution of this information! If reprinting in whole or part, please attribute it to Safety First, a Project of the Drug Policy Alliance (http://www.safety1st.org).