Students spread anti-bullying message | Citizen’s News
NAUGATUCK — Chelsea Maza and Mason Cabanas, both juniors at Naugatuck High School, stood on a stage Friday in the City Hill Middle School auditorium and asked nearly 300 eighth-graders what they thought of bullying.
“I think of something that’s happened to me … a lot of times, and I’m really sick of it,” one boy said when handed the microphone.
For that reason, Maza and Cabanas brought their presentation, called “Crossing the Line,” to the middle school Friday morning, first as an assembly for seventh-graders, and then for eighth-graders.
Students from the middle school’s drama club and student council worked with the high-schoolers to create a series of skits, songs, dances, videos and slide shows to teach their peers about bullying and its consequences.
In one clip from “Phineas and Ferb” on the Disney Channel, former heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield trains the cartoon character Phineas to fight the class bully. Students were asked to identify the bully, the victim, bystanders and the victim’s ally.
In another video, middle-schoolers held up cards with harmful stereotypes scrawled across them: Stuck-up, Jock, Loser, Idiot, Loner.
“A number of students from your middle school felt that this was a problem,” Maza told the crowd.
Some re-enactments focused on teen suicide as a result of bullying. In one, a girl almost slits her wrists as a former friend, posing as her crush, insults her on Facebook. In another, two teenage girls kill themselves after they are teased for being lesbians.
The eighth-graders were asked to raise their hands if they had seen bullying in specific locations around the school. Almost everyone raised their hands to report they had seen bullying in the halls and on school buses.
Naugatuck High School junior Mason Cabanas, 17, holds a microphone so City Hill Middle School student can talk during the ‘Crossing the Line’ anti-bullying program Friday at City Hill. –LUKE MARSHALL
Cabanas, 17, and Maza, 16, said they hoped the assembly would be as successful as it was at the high school, where it gained fame after it was presented in January to sophomores. Students were invited to tell stories of being bullied, moving each other to tears, and their antagonists apologized, the teens said. Everyone present fingerprinted a pledge to be an ally for victims.
Since then, the climate at the high school has noticeably changed, Cabanas said.
“Teachers have come up to us and said, ‘Thank you for doing this,’” Cabanas said.
Maza and Cabanas created the program as a project for DECA, the school’s marketing club, after watching a student be verbally attacked in the hallway last November.
“Mason and I thought it was ridiculous how many students were walking by as if it was a normal thing,” Maza said.
They presented their efforts in DECA’s national competition last month in Salt Lake City; they have yet to hear whether they won anything.
Eighth-graders Madison Jensen and Theresa Montoni helped host Friday’s assembly, which did not include story sharing or the thumbprint pledge.
Those will be saved for two years, when the students might see the assembly again, Cabanas said.
“We felt that if we did it now, they wouldn’t feel so much as sophomores,” Cabanas said.
via Students spread anti-bullying message | Citizen’s News (http://www NULL.mycitizensnews NULL.com/news/2012/05/students-spread-anti-bullying-message/).
Next Page »22 Percent of White Women Have Smoked Cigarettes During Pregnancy | The Partnership
The Partnership at Drugfree.org
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(http://www NULL.drugfree NULL.org/join-together/alcohol/22-percent-of-white-women-have-smoked-cigarettes-during-pregnancy?utm_source=Join+Together+Daily&utm_campaign=cd43bd9662-JT_Daily_News_Choosing_Treatment&utm_medium=email)
A new government study finds 22 percent of white women have smoked cigarettes during their pregnancy, ABC News reports (http://abcnews NULL.go NULL.com/blogs/health/2012/05/10/1-in-5-white-women-have-smoked-while-pregnant/). In contrast, 14 percent of black women, and 6.5 percent of Hispanic women, have done so. The study (http://www NULL.samhsa NULL.gov/data/spotlight/Spot062PregnantRaceEthnicity2012 NULL.pdf)was conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
“When pregnant women use alcohol, tobacco, or illicit substances they are risking health problems for themselves and poor birth outcomes for their babies,” SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde said in a statement. “Pregnant women of different races and ethnicities may have diverse patterns of substance abuse. It is essential that we use the findings from this report to develop better ways of getting this key message out to every segment of our community so that no woman or child is endangered by substance use and abuse.”
READ MORE via 22 Percent of White Women Have Smoked Cigarettes During Pregnancy | The Partnership (http://www NULL.drugfree NULL.org/join-together/alcohol/22-percent-of-white-women-have-smoked-cigarettes-during-pregnancy?utm_source=Join+Together+Daily&utm_campaign=cd43bd9662-JT_Daily_News_Choosing_Treatment&utm_medium=email).
Next Page »University of Michigan News Service | Marijuana use continues to rise among U.S. teens, while alcohol use hits historic lows
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Among the more important findings from this year’s Monitoring the Future survey of U.S. secondary school students are the following:
Marijuana use among teens rose in 2011 for the fourth straight year—a sharp contrast to the considerable decline that had occurred in the preceding decade. Daily marijuana use is now at a 30-year peak level among high school seniors.
“Synthetic marijuana,” which until earlier this year was legally sold and goes by such names as “K2″ and “spice,” was added to the study’s coverage in 2011; one in every nine high school seniors (11.4%) reported using that drug in the prior 12 months.
Alcohol use—and, importantly, occasions of heavy drinking—continued a long-term gradual decline among teens, reaching historically low levels in 2011.
Energy drinks are being consumed by about one third of teens, with use highest among younger teens.
READ MORE via University of Michigan News Service | Marijuana use continues to rise among U.S. teens, while alcohol use hits historic lows (http://ns NULL.umich NULL.edu/new/multimedia/9-videos/20124-marijuana-use-continues-to-rise-among-us-teens-while-alcohol-use-hits-historic-lows).
Next Page »Attorneys General Ask Movie Studios to Cut Smoking Scenes in Films Aimed At Youth | The Partnership
Attorneys general from 37 states have sent letters to 10 movie studio executives, asking them to stop showing smoking and tobacco in movies that are aimed at young audiences. They say these scenes encourage young people to smoke.
“Our concerns are grounded in science,” the attorneys general wrote in their letter. They note that the U.S. Surgeon General, in a report issued in March, found there is a “causal relationship between depictions of smoking in the movies and the institution of smoking among young people.” The report found that while images of smoking in movies had decreased over the past decade, in 2010, almost one-third of the top-grossing movies with ratings of G, PG or PG-13 had images of smoking, NBC Connecticut reports.
The attorneys general are asking film companies to include anti-tobacco spots on DVDs and Blu-ray videos of movies that show smoking. They want the companies to certify in the closing credits in future movies with images of smoking that no payoffs were made in connection with any depictions of tobacco use. They also are asking that future movies do not show displays of tobacco brands.
via Attorneys General Ask Movie Studios to Cut Smoking Scenes in Films Aimed At Youth | The Partnership (http://www NULL.drugfree NULL.org/join-together/tobacco/attorneys-general-ask-movie-studios-to-cut-smoking-scenes-in-films-aimed-at-youth?utm_source=Join+Together+Daily&utm_campaign=cd43bd9662-JT_Daily_News_Choosing_Treatment&utm_medium=email).
Next Page »Parents Greatly Underestimate Children’s Secondhand Smoke Exposure | The Partnership
By Join Together Staff | May 11, 2012 |
A new study finds parents greatly underestimate their children’s exposure to secondhand smoke. While 13 percent of parents said their children were exposed to cigarette smoke, blood tests showed the rate was 55 percent.
In children, secondhand smoke can cause ear infections, more frequent and severe asthma attacks, respiratory symptoms and infections, and a greater risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (http://www NULL.cdc NULL.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/secondhand_smoke/general_facts/index NULL.htm#children)
The researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, tested 496 blood samples from young children. The study tested blood levels of cotinine, a chemical produced by the body after it is exposed to nicotine, Reuters reports.
In the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, (http://archpedi NULL.ama-assn NULL.org/cgi/content/abstract/archpediatrics NULL.2012 NULL.170v1) the researchers noted children do not necessarily need to be around someone who is smoking in order to be exposed to secondhand smoke. They can be exposed if they spend time in a room where someone has recently been smoking.
Cotinine testing is not readily available to the general public, according to study co-author Dr. Neal Benowitz.
via Parents Greatly Underestimate Children’s Secondhand Smoke Exposure | The Partnership (http://www NULL.drugfree NULL.org/join-together/prevention/parents-greatly-underestimate-children%e2%80%99s-secondhand-smoke-exposure?utm_source=Join+Together+Daily&utm_campaign=cd43bd9662-JT_Daily_News_Choosing_Treatment&utm_medium=email).
Next Page »Senate Opens Investigation into Financial Ties Related to Prescription Painkillers | The Partnership
The Senate Finance Committee announced they have opened an inquiry that will look at financial ties between prescription painkiller manufacturers and pain experts, patient advocacy groups and bodies that set guidelines on physicians’ use of the medications.
The New York Times (http://www NULL.nytimes NULL.com/2012/05/09/health/senate-panel-to-examine-narcotic-drug-makers-financial-ties NULL.html?_r=2) reports the committee wants to ensure that doctors and patients are receiving accurate information about the risks and benefits of painkillers, without regard to the financial interests of drug manufacturers.
The committee is also seeking information from several academic experts about their links to drug makers.
Companies involved in the inquiry are Purdue Pharma, which makes OxyContin, Endo Pharmaceuticals, which makes Percocet, and Johnson & Johnson, maker of Duragesic. The American Pain Foundation, a patient advocacy group, and the Pain and Policy Studies Group at the University of Wisconsin, also received letters from the committee.
via Senate Opens Investigation into Financial Ties Related to Prescription Painkillers | The Partnership (http://www NULL.drugfree NULL.org/join-together/prescription-drugs/senate-opens-investigation-into-financial-ties-related-to-prescription-painkillers?utm_source=Join+Together+Daily&utm_campaign=61e7621ec3-JT_Daily_News_Senate_Opens&utm_medium=email).
Next Page »Survey Finds Marijuana Use on the Rise Among Teens | The Partnership at Drugfree.org
Nearly one in 10 teenagers are smoking marijuana at least 20 or more times a month, a new survey finds. The Associated Press (http://www NULL.washingtonpost NULL.com/politics/survey-finds-long-decline-in-teen-pot-use-has-reversed/2012/05/01/gIQAjwXjuT_story NULL.html)reports that the survey, released Wednesday by The Partnership at Drugfree.org, found past-month use of marijuana rose from 19 percent in 2008, to 27 percent last year.
The Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (http://www NULL.drugfree NULL.org/newsroom/pats-2011)found past-year use of marijuana rose from 31 percent in 2008, to 39 percent (six million teens) in 2011. The survey found lifetime use increased from 39 percent in 2008, to 47 percent (eight million teens) in 2011. The last time marijuana use was this widespread among teens was in 1998, when past month use of marijuana was at 27 percent.
“Parents are talking about cocaine and heroin, things that scare them,” Steve Pasierb, President and CEO of The Partnership at Drugfree.org, told the AP. “Parents are not talking about prescription drugs and marijuana. They can’t wink and nod. They need to be stressing the message that this behavior is unhealthy.”
The survey suggests an association between teens who smoke marijuana more regularly and the use of other drugs. Adolescents who smoked 20 times or more a month were almost twice as likely, as those who smoked marijuana less often, to use Ecstasy, cocaine or crack.
The survey suggests teen marijuana use has become a normalized behavior. Only 26 percent agree with the statement, “In my school, most teens don’t smoke marijuana,” down from 37 percent in 2008. Also, 71 percent of teens say they have friends who use marijuana regularly, up from 64 percent in 2008.
According to the survey, 10 percent of teens said they used prescription pain medication in the past year, down from a peak of 15 percent in 2009, and 14 percent in 2010.
via Survey Finds Marijuana Use on the Rise Among Teens | The Partnership at Drugfree.org (http://www NULL.drugfree NULL.org/join-together/drugs/survey-finds-marijuana-use-on-the-rise-among-teens?utm_source=Join+Together+Daily&utm_campaign=578c46000e-JT_Daily_News_National_Survey_Finds&utm_medium=email).
Next Page »May 24th Daybreak Presents “Addiction and the Teenage Brain”
with OHSU Neurobiologist Dr. Bonnie Nagel May 24, 2012 (9 to 11)
Rethinking the War on Drugs – WSJ.com
“For every complex problem,” H.L. Mencken wrote, “there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong.”
That is especially true of drug abuse and addiction. Indeed, the problem is so complex that it has produced not just one clear, simple, wrong solution but two: the “drug war” (prohibition plus massive, undifferentiated enforcement) and proposals for wholesale drug legalization.
Fortunately, these two bad ideas are not our only choices. We could instead take advantage of proven new approaches that can make us safer while greatly reducing the number of Americans behind bars for drug offenses.
Our current drug policies do far more harm than they need to do and far less good than they might, largely because they ignore some basic facts. Treating all “drug abusers” as a single group flies in the face of what is known as Pareto’s Law: that for any given activity, 20% of the participants typically account for 80% of the action.
via Rethinking the War on Drugs – WSJ.com (http://professional NULL.wsj NULL.com/article/SB10001424052702303425504577353754196169014 NULL.html?utm_source=Join+Together+Daily&utm_campaign=fc2c5c722d-JT_Daily_News_Do_You_Know_What&utm_medium=email).
Next Page »Beau Kilmer on Legalizing Marijuana – WSJ.com
By BEAU KILMER
Discussions about legalizing marijuana should start with a few basic truths.
One is that legalization would save the law-enforcement and social costs of arresting hundreds of thousands of adults each year. (Most proposals would keep marijuana illegal for those under 21.) Another is that pot’s underground economy—estimated at $15 billion to $30 billion annually—would be largely wiped out if marijuana were legalized throughout the country. Finally, it is clear that legalization would greatly decrease price and, therefore, increase the number of both recreational and heavy marijuana users.
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Rethinking the War on Drugs
Beyond these facts, the ramifications get extremely murky. Being honest about the uncertainties involved is the price of admission to any serious discussion about marijuana legalization.
When my RAND colleagues and I tried to project the consequences if California passed a 2010 marijuana-legalization ballot initiative, we started by calculating the cost of producing marijuana in residential grow-houses, a likely production venue if the drug were legalized at the state level. We calculated that the pretax price for high-potency, indoor-grown marijuana could drop by more than 80%. If national legalization allowed producers to switch to greenhouses and outdoor farming, the prices would drop even further: A “joint” might cost pennies rather than dollars.
Such a huge drop in price would certainly increase use. But no one knows by how much because no modern country has experienced prices that low. Taxes could not come close to maintaining prohibition-level prices without being undercut by a “gray” market. Indeed, tobacco-tax evasion is already a serious issue in the U.S., where the average state tax is a few dollars a pack, and a pack of cigarettes weighs just about an ounce. By comparison, an ounce of high-quality marijuana now sells for about $300.
Another big unknown is how marijuana legalization would influence alcohol consumption. It is natural to assume that pot would serve as a substitute (higher use would decrease heavy drinking), but it is equally likely that it would be a complement (higher use would increase heavy drinking). The scientific literature on this is inconclusive.
That uncertainty is crucial because heavy drinking is much more common—and much more harmful—than heavy marijuana use. Alcohol is strongly connected with violence, traffic fatalities and chronic disease. Even a small decrease in heavy drinking could outweigh any social costs from legalizing marijuana. By the same token, even a small increase in heavy drinking could outweigh any benefits of legalization.
Similar questions can be asked about how greater marijuana use might affect the use of “hard” drugs like cocaine and heroin. The debate about “gateway” effects when young people experiment with marijuana is bitter and unsettled, but claims of a pharmacological link to the use of other drugs seem to have been overplayed in the past.
One thing is certain. Nothing we do about marijuana would dramatically reduce the harms associated with the larger “war on drugs.” The market for hard drugs is much larger in dollars, in violence and in the number of offenders behind bars. If these are the critical problems, then marijuana legalization is a sideshow, not the main event.
via Beau Kilmer on Legalizing Marijuana – WSJ.com (http://professional NULL.wsj NULL.com/article/SB10001424052702303425504577353852663443304 NULL.html).
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