“20% of Americans consume 80% of the alcohol. “Kevin Sabet, President of SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

Join us at Friday Harbor Presbyterian Church, we appreciate our partnership and allowing us to meet in their space. 11:30am-12pm, a light lunch is served. Meeting runs 12pm-2pm. All welcome to attend. RSVP 360-370-5716.

“I just want to get high. The government shouldn’t be able to tell me that I can’t.”

Legalization is not about just “getting high.” By legalizing marijuana, the United States would be ushering in a new, for-profit industry – not different from Big Tobacco. Already, private holding groups and financiers have raised millions of start-up dollars to promote businesses that will sell marijuana and marijuana-related merchandise. Cannabis food and candy is being marketed to children and are already responsible for a growing number of marijuana-related ER visits.[xxx]Edibles with names such as “Ring Pots” and “Pot Tarts” are inspired by favorite candies of children and dessert products such as “Ring Pops” and “Pop Tarts.” Moreover, a large vaporization industry is now emerging and targeting youth, allowing young people and minors to use marijuana more easily in public places without being detected.[xxxi]

[xxx] Alface, I. (2013, May 27). Children Poisoned by Candy-looking Marijuana Products. Nature World News. Accessed https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/; Jaslow, R. (2013, 28 May). Laxer marijuana laws linked to increase in kids’ accidental poisonings CBS News. Accessed http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57586408/laxer-marijuana-laws-linked-to-increase-in-kids-accidental-poisonings.

[xxxi] See for example Bryan, M. (2014, 18 April). Pot Smoke And Mirrors: Vaporizer Pens Hide Marijuana Use. NPR 90.9 WBUR. Accessed http://www.wbur.org/npr/302992602/pot-smoke-and-mirrors-vaporizer-pens-hide-marijuana-use?ft=3&f=302992602

[xxxii] Baca, R. (2014, 26 February). Drug dealer says legal pot helps his business (video). The Cannabist. Accessed: http://www.thecannabist.co/2014/02/26/drug-dealer-anything-legalization-helped-business-video/5581/; Gurman, S. (2014, April 4). Legal pot in Colorado hasn’t stopped black market. Associated Press. Accessed http://bigstory.ap.org/article/legal-pot-colorado-hasnt-stopped-black-market

learnaboutsam.org

Rest in Peace, Dear Friend

Smoking kills more people than alcohol, AIDS, car crashes, illegal drugs, murders, and suicides combined — and thousands more die from other tobacco-related causes — such as fires caused by smoking (more than 1,000 deaths/year nationwide) and smokeless tobacco use.  tobaccofreekids.org

Immediate Release: 

Rock Solid Youth presents at National Leadership Forum in DC

 The San Juan Island Prevention Coalition is excited to share that Zach Fincher will be presenting at CADCA’s 28th National Leadership Forum, the nation’s premier and largest training event for community prevention leaders, treatment professionals and researchers, and SAMHSA’s 14th Prevention Day. Held Feb. 5-8, 2018 in National Harbor, MD, the CADCA Forum brings together nearly 3,000 local, state and national experts in the drug prevention and treatment fields.

Zach’s training session, entitled “Rock Solid Youth Rocks!”, is one of more than 70 in-depth training sessions offered at the CADCA Forum. Zach will be presenting this course as he shares his experiences with prevention projects he’s led and the training opportunities he’s learned from since 2011, culminating this year, in his team Rock Solid winning the Grand Prize honors at the WA. State Spring Youth Forum.

Youth Leadership Training opportunities have been the cornerstone of our San Juan Island Prevention Coalition, investing in youth leadership skill-building events has been pivotal in gaining youth support and involvement. Our San Juan Island Prevention Coalition adopts the philosophy of “Youth-Led, Adult Guided,” an NYLI motto. Our youth want to help, but often don’t know the resources available or lack the skills to move forward. Zach will discuss how we keep engaging our youth and giving them a voice at the table, but more importantly, in their community, while helping them to leverage their power in implementing the seven strategies to affect community change.

Also, other Rock Solid members: Chiara Power, Luke Fincher, along with chaperone, Penelope Haskew and Rock Solid Team Advisor Debbi Fincher will be attending the Forum as part of the team’s Grand Prize at the WA. State Spring Youth Forum. Attending the National Leadership Forum as a team, they can harness their new skills and knowledge of the latest strategies to fight substance abuse as they hear from nationally-known prevention experts, federal administrators, and concerned policymakers, which they can share with our community upon their return. Rock Solid is grateful to be included in this one-of-a-kind event!

For details about the CADCA Forum, including training session descriptions, speaker information, and more, visit www.cadca.org/events/forum2018. The San Juan Island Prevention Coalition is a member of CADCA. The mission of CADCA (Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America) is to strengthen the capacity of community coalitions to create and maintain safe, healthy and drug-free communities globally.

5 Permanent Drop-Off Locations:

San Juan County, WA:

Friday Harbor Drug 210 Spring Street, Friday Harbor, WA. 98250 Hours: Monday-Friday 9am-7pm, Saturday 10am-5pm, Sunday 10am-2pm. NO Controlled Substances collected. 360-378-4421

Ray’s Pharmacy 68 W Beach Rd. Eastsound, WA. 98245  NO Controlled Substances collected. 360-376-2230

San Juan County Sheriff’s Office-San Juan Island 96 Second St. Friday Harbor, WA. Accepts Controlled Substances 24/7. 360-378-4151

Lopez Island Sheriff’s Substation

Orcas Island Sheriff’s Substation

The goal is to decrease the number of accidental poisonings occurring in the household due to unwanted medications. This can be due to medication mistakes due to excess unused medications, teenage abuse of opiates, and childhood poisoning due to accessible medications. Currently, accidental poisoning is the number one reason for accidental death in the state of Washington.

A State-by-State Look at the
1998 Tobacco Settlement 19 Years Later

Since the states settled their lawsuits against the major tobacco companies in 1998, our annual reports have assessed whether the states are keeping their promise to use a significant portion of their settlement funds – estimated at $246 billion over the first 25 years – to attack the enormous public health problems caused by tobacco use in the United States.

Despite receiving huge sums from the settlement and collecting billions more in tobacco taxes, the states continue to shortchange tobacco prevention and cessation programs that we know save lives and money.

In the current budget year, Fiscal Year 2018, the states will collect $27.5 billion from the settlement and taxes. But they will spend less than 3 percent of it – $721.6 million – on programs to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit.

Meanwhile, tobacco companies spend $8.9 billion a year – $1 million dollars every hour – to market their deadly and addictive products. This means tobacco companies spend $12 to market their products for every $1 the states spend to reduce tobacco use.

This enormous gap undermines efforts to save lives and health care dollars by reducing tobacco use, the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the United States.

This report is issued by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Lung Association, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights and Truth Initiative.

WA STATE FUNDING FOR TOBACCO PREVENTION:

Washington

Click on each state to view the full data. Follow this link for information on the District of Columbia.

Other key findings include:

• The $721.6 million the states have budgeted for tobacco prevention amounts to a small fraction of the $3.3 billion the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends for all states combined. Not a single state currently funds tobacco prevention programs at the level recommended by the CDC.
• Only two states – California and Alaska – provide over 90 percent of the recommended CDC funding. Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia are spending less than 20 percent of what the CDC recommends.
• States with well-funded, sustained tobacco prevention programs continue to report significant progress. Florida, with one of the longest-running programs, reduced its high school smoking rate to 5.2 percent, one of the lowest ever reported by any state.

The United States has made great strides and reduced smoking to record lows – 15.1 percent among adults in 2015 and 8 percent among high school students in 2016. But tobacco use still kills more than 480,000 Americans and costs the nation about $170 billion in health care expenses each year.

There are also large disparities in who still smokes and who suffers from tobacco-related diseases in the U.S. Smoking rates are especially high in a swath of 12 states in the Midwest and South, an area called “Tobacco Nation” in a recent Truth Initiative report. Nationwide, smoking rates are highest among people who live below the poverty level and have less education, American Indians/Alaska Natives, LGBT Americans, those who are uninsured or on Medicaid, and those with mental illness. These differences are in large part due to the tobacco industry’s targeting of vulnerable populations through advertising, price discounting and other marketing strategies.

By fully implementing proven strategies, the states can reduce tobacco use among all Americans and make the next generation tobacco-free.

Written by tobaccofreekids.org Thank you for caring for our kids!