Not Your’ Mother’s Grad Night

 By Debbi Fincher  (Written: June 2010 for San Juan Journal)

Another school year is quickly coming to an end, and on the minds of all high school seniors is graduation! Often this “rite of passage” is viewed by many as a chance to celebrate with drinking alcohol or using illegal substances.

Thankfully, our community has stepped up to help offer our graduating seniors another option, Project Grad Night, an all night, alcohol-free/drug-free party exclusively for them! With a participation level over 94% each year from the senior class, the buy-in is huge! What makes this so powerful is the students have made a conscious choice to enjoy their graduation night without drugs and alcohol.  And, in the end, only the students can make that decision for themselves. “According to the 2008 Washington State Healthy Youth Survey, about two out of three seniors choose not to drink alcohol.”

Project Grad Night is the community at its best. Students, parents, local business owners and community members come together to support our youth in helping to make healthy choices. Not only will this positive influence be felt on grad night, but as they continue to make decisions about how they want to celebrate other “special passages” as they move into their “independence” and the decisions it will require.

The graduating seniors will be whisked off minutes after their graduation ceremony on to a thrilling, fun and engaging night of activities. The planning has been in the works for the past year for this group, but perhaps on their minds for the last few years. In 2007, Project Grad Night was first introduced on San Juan Island. Parent volunteer, Joyce Stimpson, was involved from the start and continues to help facilitate the program. Her son Loch,  FHHS ‘07 Grad said, “it was nice of Project Grad Night to take the stress off of the kids to come up with a party because there was already one planned that we didn’t have to worry about getting broken up by the cops.”

Each year, the planning committee of senior parents, try to keep the events a surprise making the night that much more intriguing and safe. And, the fun associated with it gives that feeling of a “natural high”. Events have included “sumo wrestling”, a game of “Survivor” on Jones Island and a sunrise cruise aboard the whale watch boat the Odyssey. Loch also said, “I think the feeling of doing something as a class for the last time gets understated far too much with this experience.”

This will be a night to remember and well, they’ll be able to remember it if they are alcohol and drug-free. Graduation night is supposed to be fun, not fatal. Give those graduating seniors a huge congrats as you send them on their way that night, they’ve already shown great wisdom in their plans for their big night out!

Much gratitude also goes out to the many volunteers and donors giving their time, talents and resources to make this happen! The San Juan Island Prevention Coalition supports this program but it’s through fundraising efforts from senior parents and the students in our community that make Project Grad Night a reality!  Here’s to their healthy future…

A Few Photos from 2015 Project Grad Nite, truly a magical evening…

VaporInfographic.SanJuan

Last year, both the Mayor of Friday Harbor, Carrie Lacher and San Juan County Councilman, Bob Jarmin, Proclaimed MAY 16th to be our communities Distracted Driving Awareness Day.

As you may recall, we had the Arrive Alive Tour come visit our local high school and over 200 teens got to experience the driving simulator on Distracted Driving. Many teens were especially impacted by their inability to watch the road and text while driving the simulator. A pre and post test were given by the Arrive Alive Team and the data supports the effectiveness of these types of events. Attached are those results. 

Friday Harbor-San Juan Island Prevention Coalition-5-16-14-Survey Results

Here are a few photos from that day… What habits are you changing when behind the wheel, so you are not distracted?

Part of going to the Washington State Prevention Summit in the fall, is to return to your community and put together a project on prevention issues before the school year ends. This year, some of the youth took a creative path to sharing healthy messages for their younger counterparts. These videos, Public Service Announcements (PSA), will be shared in our local Elementary School by their PE Teacher, as he helps prepare the students for healthy choices, especially as kids take to being outdoors with the nicer weather. Enjoy!

Summer Calendar insert on going programs 2015

This graph shows that adolescents (ages 12-17) in states that have legalized marijuana for medical use have considerably higher rates of past-month marijuana use than teens in states that haven’t legalized “medical” pot. Alabama has the lowest rate—5%, while Rhode Island has the highest—13%.

A graph of past-month use among young adults (ages 18-25) would look almost the same except the numbers are higher. Utah has the lowest rate among young adults—11%, while Rhode Island has the highest—30%, or nearly one-third of the state’s young adults!

The adolescent graph appears on page 11 of the newly released Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area’s (HIDTA) publication, titled The Legalization of Marijuana in Colorado: The Impact, Volume 3.

Colorado and Washington state legalized recreational marijuana at the end of 2012, but neither state allowed recreational sales until 2014. The data about adolescent use are from 2013, one year before full legalization was implemented in either state. Thus, the levels of use in this graph pertain to legal “medical” pot but not to legal “recreational” pot.

What will adolescent marijuana use look like in Colorado in 2014? It will almost certainly be higher. Why? By the end of 2014, Colorado had 2,233 licensed medical marijuana dispensaries, recreational marijuana stores, growing facilities, and infused products (edibles) producers, making and selling pot in various forms throughout the state.

By the end of 2014, Colorado had licensed a total of 827 pot shops selling “medical” or “recreational” marijuana, double the number of Starbucks (405) and nearly quadruple the number of McDonald’s (227) in the state.

The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) has drafted a very comprehensive report showing the impact of the legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado.

Colorado SAM Supporters,
Yesterday, the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA)  put out its latest report on the impact of marijuana legalization/commercialization in Colorado.

As you can see, Colorado’s failed marijuana commercialization policy is negatively impacting schools, our healthcare system, youth and adults, and community safety. This is the third report from Rocky Mountain HIDTA.  The new report and copies of the previous two can be found here.

While the state continues to only put out revenue figures, the costs continue to grow. What this new report and growing data continue to show is voters in Colorado were deceived and marijuana commercialization is a failed policy approach.

Please encourage others to join our coalition to educate people about the problems of marijuana commercialization/legalization, the need to end our failed policies, and focus on a public health, science, and safety based approach.  You can send them this e-mail or encourage them to go to our web site www.coloradosam.org

The latest report highlights include:

• Impaired driving related to marijuana is increasing
• Colorado marijuana use rates exceed the national average in every age category, including almost a third of 18-25 year olds using
• School drug related expulsions/suspensions are up dramatically since commercialization began under the guise of medicine in 2009-10
• Marijuana related ER visits are continuing to go up
• Marijuana related hospital discharges (at least an overnight stay) are up
• More marijuana calls to poison control and youth poisonings
• Illegal diversion of marijuana continues to grow

• Section	Cynthia’s notes: (SJIPC Coordinator)
  1:  Impaired Driving	71% DUIDs involved marijuana;  41% involved only mj; and yes, more DUIDs
  2:  Youth Marijuana Use	CO ranked 3rd in nation for youth use; 6.6% increase from 2013 to 2014WA is 4th (page 11)
  3:  Adult Marijuana Use	College Age (18-25 years old) up 8.4%
  4:  Emergency Room and Hospital Related Admissions	Page 23.  Jan-Jun 2014 data shows 1,105 emergency room visits with possible marijuana exposures.  The full year of 2013 was 873.  2014 is when the retail stores began operating.  Page 26 shows similar data for hospitalization rates related to possible marijuana exposure.
  5:  Marijuana Related Exposure	70% increase when the marijuana retail businesses began operating. Note the age range graph on page 31, and the graph showing a 400% increase in the number of THC infused edible exposures.
  6:  Treatment	Current data not yet available.  References Volume 2 report.
  7:  Diversion of Colorado Marijuana	Colorado marijuana interdiction seizures increased 592%, from yearly seizures of 52, to 360 in 2014. (pages 35/36).  An excellent map on page 38 showing states to which Colorado marijuana was destined in 2014. Lots of pot going elsewhere.
  8:  Diversion by Parcel	2033% increase from 2010 to 2014 for the number of parcels with CO marijuana destined for other states.  55% increase from 2013 to 2014 when the retail stores opened. Page 39
  9:  THC Extraction Labs	From 0 in 2010 to 2012 to 32 in 2014.  Page 41  Same for injuries
  10:  Related Data	Increase in unlawful public display/consumption of marijuana.$52.5 million in tax revenue from marijuana taxes in 2014. Alcohol consumption will be decreased is debunked (page 46) Edible units sold in 2014: 1.9 million for medical edible, and 2.8 million of recreational edible products.   (page 49)
  See for links to the previous years’ reports	Remember this is a draft.  If interested, you will see that the 2013 report is 166 pages long and volume 1 is 66 pages.

www.cadca.org

Building drug-free communities.