Congrats Team! We are thrilled with your success and dedication to promoting health!

Press Release Rock Solid SJIPC:CADCA 2022

We are thrilled to share Luke Fincher, President of Rock Solid, our coalition’s Youth Team, is presenting at this year’s Forum in Washington DC! Congratulations, Luke! Team member, Haley Rennick, will be attending, too! Haley will be engaged in various workshops of interest to her, so she can bring her new knowledge and confidence back to our community to help continue to promote health and well-being:) Kudos!

CADCA’s National Leadership Forum is a four-day conference packed with multiple adults and youth-oriented opportunities to learn the latest strategies to fight substance misuse and hear from nationally-known experts and policymakers with a full day dedicated to Capitol Hill events. The Forum is held in the Washington, DC area every year, normally the first week of February, and brings together more than 3,000 participants representing community anti-drug coalitions, government leaders, youth, addiction treatment professionals, researchers, educators, law enforcement professionals, youth, and faith-based leaders.

Peer 2 Peer: High School Training

• Friday, January 21st ~8:30/8:45 start time to 2:30
  • The start time will be a bit flexible as students are arriving. We hope to have a group craft for groups to begin working on as each school has a slightly different start time.
• Location: At your school on Zoom with Rock Solid team members
• Registration is available soon! We hope to close the registration at the latest date of January 10th so that we have adequate time to mail supplies for the training to our groups.
• Contact Adult Team Advisor, Debbi Fincher, media@sjipc.org, or Peer 2 Peer Regional Trainer, Luke Fincher

Use your new skills to help teach these important health topics to other students in our middle school and beyond!

Rock Solid is in their 3rd year of Peer 2 Peer and have been recognized on local, regional, state, and national levels for their dedication and determination to help others:) Join the team! 

Meet and Greet:

• Wednesday, December 8^th from 4:00-5:00
• Location: Zoom  (Contact us for the link!)
• This will be a fun and interactive time to get together across the region, meet other teens and ask questions to other peers about the program, AND learn about the new incentive piece! Come to this if you or your groups are not sure if they want to participate OR if your group is experienced and committed so they can encourage other groups!

Peer 2 Peer: High School Training

• Friday, January 21^st ~8:30/8:45 start time to 2:30
  • The start time will be a bit flexible as students are arriving. We hope to have a group craft for groups to begin working on as each school has a slightly different start time.
• Location: At your school on Zoom with Rock Solid team members
• Registration is available soon! We hope to close the registration at the latest date of January 10^th so that we have adequate time to mail supplies for the training to our groups. Contact Adult Team Advisor, Debbi Fincher, media@sjipc.org
• 

ONLINE SURVEY ENGLISH

https://www.research.net/r/SAJUSAJUEN2021

 ONLINE SURVEY SPANISH

https://es.research.net/r/SJSAJUSP2021

This survey provides the San Juan Island Prevention Coalition (SJIPC) with some local information about community perceptions and to look at it as one point of data reference along with the Healthy Youth Survey, school intervention data that the Student Assistant Professional collects, and the program assessments for the programs that the SJIPC helps to fund: Community Based Mentoring and Strengthening Families provided by the Joyce L. Sobel Family Resource Center, Second Step in the elementary school, LifeSkills Training in Grade 6 at FHMS, and the SAP (formerly the Prevention Intervention Specialist full-time position with now titled the Student Assistance Professional) that provides full-time prevention intervention support at the middle and high schools through support of the NWESD’s and the Coalition’s CPWI (Community Prevention and Wellness Initiative) partnership. Most importantly, CPWI has helped the SJIPC to support the growth of youth leadership prevention clubs, Rock Solid, HOTS, and HOT, Jr. The SJIPC has a robust social media presence that links to national, regional, and state public awareness campaigns.

Please help the SJIPC to gain continued support through the WA Health Care  Authority’s Community Prevention and Wellness Initiative, which invests in our community by formalizing and support coordination of community-based decision-making, by completing this survey. San Juan Island Prevention Coalition was founded in December 2003, and began receiving federal Drug-Free Communities funding in 2004, and had the benefit of that support for ten years. SJIPC has been able to sustain its work through CPWI funding, a mix of federal block grant funding (Substance Abuse Block Grant/SABG), and state Dedicated Marijuana Account (DMA) dollars. As a CPWI coalition, the SJIPC also have been able to receive federal Partnership for Success (PFS) supplemental funds that helped them to pilot the very successful Second Step program in grades K-5. Thank you for completing this short 5-minute survey.

StartTalkingNow.org is maintained by the Washington Healthy Youth (WHY) Coalition. Our mission is to prevent and reduce underage alcohol and marijuana use. Find out more at https://www.theathenaforum.org/WHY.

Does alcohol and other drug abuse increase the risk for suicide?

Laments Historically Low Rate of Perceived Harm from Marijuana Use in U.S. Youth

Yesterday, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released the latest edition of the annual World Drug Report, which highlighted the fact that while use of marijuana among young people has increased to levels not seen since the early nineties, the perception of harm from use among the same demographic is at a historic low. The report also called for a global ban on marijuana advertising and the implementation of a cap on THC potency in marijuana products where the marijuana industry has expanded.

“This report is a wakeup call for the world, and in particular the United States, the nation with the highest level of marijuana use in the world,” said Dr. Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) and a former senior drug policy advisor to the Obama Administration. “The reduced perception of harm among young people comes at a time when young people are increasingly using harmful, high potency products commercialized by a growing industry. We simply must do more to deal with the growing issue of today’s marijuana and reverse the prevailing narrative that it is harmless.”

In the United States, over 29 million people 18 and older were estimated to be past year users, among whom some 45 percent, or 14 million people, were daily or near-daily users. The most concerning revelation concerning use is the recent, rapid increase of daily or near-daily use of marijuana among high school students. In 2020, such use among high school students was estimated at 4.1 percent. In 1991, such use among high school students was below 1 percent.

The report highlights this increase in marijuana use among high school students is “in stark contrast to the decline in tobacco and alcohol use.” The rate of past-month use of tobacco among high school students has dramatically declined from nearly 12 percent in 2011 to 5 percent in 2020 while the same rate of alcohol use dropped from 26 percent in 2011 to 21 percent in 2020.

Highlighting data from the 2020 Monitoring the Future survey, the report shows that while past-month use among tenth graders in the U.S. has risen to the highest level since 2001, the perception of perceived risk from regular marijuana use is at the lowest level in history. This decline in the perception of harm from the use of marijuana comes at a time when marijuana potency is dramatically increasing, as jurisdictions are allowing for the commercialization of the drug without the implementation of regulations on THC potency.

According to the report, “a comprehensive ban on advertising, promoting, and sponsoring marijuana would ensure that public health interests prevail over business interests. Such a ban would need to apply across all jurisdictions. The measures could work in a way similar to the provisions of The Who Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.” In conjunction with a ban on advertising, the report also calls for the implementation of regulations that cap the potency of THC in marijuana products where legal markets have been expanded.

Finally, due to the drastic increase in drug use and overdose deaths that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, the UNODC is urging nations to invest sufficient levels of funding for drug use prevention and treatment that will be direly needed to combat the increase in drug use and improve the quality of such efforts to reduce negative outcomes. The report emphasized that the pandemic “exacerbated the factors that rule the vicious cycle of socio-economic vulnerability and drug use disorders,” such as poverty, limited employment, and limited education. By Grace Colton  ~SAM

https://learnaboutsam.org/un-world-drug-report-calls-for-global-ban-on-marijuana-advertising-thc-potency-caps/

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month

June is Pride Month, which commemorates the Stonewall riots in 1969 and is an opportunity to recognize the impact LGBTQ+ people have in our communities.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth report higher rates of substance use compared to straight and cisgender peers and are at a greater risk for developing substance use and mental health disorders. They are also more likely to experience bullying.

• LGBTQ-Inclusive Language
• The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s guide for helping families to support LGBT children
• Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board: Two-Spirit and LGBTQ health
• Trevor Project Lifeline: Crisis intervention and suicide prevention services for LGBTQ+ youth/young adults under 25
• PFLAG: Wide range of topics and support for LGBTQ+ individuals and allies
• Mental Health America: Resources for LGBTQ+ individuals