ASAP
The Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention or, more simply, ASAP, is a coalition led by the Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery Board. It’s members are a network of people from all walks of life - health professionals, parents, educators, elected officials, merchants, business members, police, administrators, and students - who are concerned about alcohol, tobacco, and drug use among school-age children in Trumbull County.
Our goal is not an easy one, but it is a simple one: Prevent substance abuse among youth and create and promote a healthy lifestyle.
In the News
Events
Prescription Drug Recovery Event/Operation Empty Medicine Cabinet
A recent national study found that 53 percent of people aged 18-25 obtained prescription pain relievers free from family members or friends for nonmedical use.
Although it may seem wasteful to dispose of costly prescription medication, properly disposing of unneeded or old medication is one way to prevent prescription drug abuse among your family and friends.
The next Operation Medicine Cabinet event will take place in May 2012. Check back in the Spring for more information.
Geauga Trumbull Solid Waste Management
5138 Enterprise Drive (Off of Parkman Road near the by-pass)
Warren, Ohio
Please bring medications in original containers.
ASAP Coalition Meetings
Meetings are held the 3rd Tuesday of every month at the Trumbull Metropolitan Housing Authority Building,
4076 Youngstown Rd, Warren, OH 44484
Suite #201
How You Can Help
Every child and adolescent deserves to live in an environment that promotes health and opportunities for success and well being.
Join the Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention to help eliminate substance abuse among kids and promote healthy lifestyles.
We need both youth and adults to help us create a promising, substance abuse-free community for everyone.
Here's what you can do to help:
- Share our message.
- Adopt a "no use" rule in your home.
- Educate others on why they should not host a teen drinking party.
- Join ASAP.
Drinking and substance abuse are not a "right of passage." Expect more from our kids. Together we can make a difference.
Why You Should Care
Two reasons: First and foremost "our" kids are indeed our future. Their actions today will affect their future and ours for many years to come.
The presence and use of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, inhalants and other drugs is absolutely linked to many health, social and economic problems that slowly but most surely erode our families and communities.
Illnesses, addictions, accidents, premature deaths, birth defects, violence, domestic or partner abuse, other crimes, unwanted teen pregnancy, school failure or dropout, delinquency, depressed communities, joblessness, and homelessness - all have strong correlations to substance abuse.
If these aren't enough reasons to get involved and get active, try this: drug and alcohol abuse costs you and every member of your family. It is estimated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that substance abuse-related problems cost every man, woman and child in America $800 a year - or nearly $200 billion. These costs are reflected in higher health care costs, higher insurance, more tax dollars for law enforcement and incarceration, lost worker productivity, and on and on.
Prevention is everybody's business and must involve people, groups, and systems at every level of society.
For more information send an email to LThorp@TrumbullMHRB.org.
What Parents Should Know
Underage drinking laws:
- As a parent, you cannot give alcohol to your teen's friends under the age of 21 under any circumstance, even in your own home, even with their parent's permission.
- You cannot knowingly allow a person under 21, other than your own child, to remain in your home or on your property while consuming or possessing alcohol.
If you break the law:
- You can face a maximum sentence of six months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine.
- Others can sue you if you give alcohol to anyone under 21, and they, in turn, hurt someone, hurt themselves or damage property.
- Officers can take any alcohol, money or property used in committing the offense.
Things you can do as a parent:
- Refuse to supply alcohol to anyone under 21.
- Be at home when your teen has a party.
- Make sure that alcohol is not brought into your home or property by your teen's friends.
- Talk to other parents about not providing alcohol at other events your child will be attending.
- Create alcohol-free opportunities and activities in your home so teens will feel welcome.
- Report underage drinking to local law enforcement.
Zero Tolerance Alcohol Policy Good Choice for Parents
While restaurants in Germany legally sell alcohol to teenagers after their sixteenth birthdays and French children drink wine with dinner at an early age, new research suggests that U.S. parents who follow this relaxed European example could be increasing the likelihood that their children binge drink in college.
Research conducted by Caitlin Abar, with Penn State's Prevention Research and Methodology Centers, found that there is no scientific basis to the common belief that prohibiting alcohol turns it into a "forbidden fruit" and encourages abuse. Abar presented her results at the 2009 meeting of the Society for Prevention Research in Washington, D.C. and they appear in the current issue of Addictive Behaviors.
In 31 states, parents can legally serve alcohol to their underage children. Though U.S. teenagers drink less often than adults, they tend to drink more at a time — on average, five drinks in a sitting. About 87 percent of college students try alcohol, and 40 percent say that they regularly engage in some type of binge drinking.
To see if parents permitting underage alcohol use might be an underlying cause of binge drinking, Abar surveyed almost 300 college freshmen and related their drinking habits to their parents' modeling and permissibility of alcohol use. Those students whose parents did not permit them to drink underage — about half of the group — were significantly less likely to drink heavily in college, regardless of gender. Whether the parents themselves drank, on the other hand, appeared to have little effect on predicting their children's behaviors when accounting for the permissibility they exhibited toward teen alcohol use.
Abar cautioned, however, that further research is needed to confirm the preliminary study and that they need to determine if the setting where parents provide the alcohol changes the results. A previous study in 2004 by Kristie Foley, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, North Carolina, showed that teenagers who received alcohol from their parents for parties were up to three times more likely to binge drink within a month, while those who drank only with the family were less likely to binge. So the context in which a parent provides alcohol could be key.
While the sample group used in this Abar's study was comprised primarily of Caucasian college students, previous research uncovered a similar effect in low-income African-American and Hispanic students. A 2007 study of 1,388 children by Kelli Komro, and the University of Florida, showed that schoolchildren who were permitted alcohol in the home by their parents in sixth grade were up to three times more likely to get drunk and almost twice as likely to drink heavily (five or more drinks) at ages 12-14.
Summer is a Risky Time for Tweens
Summer! Just the mere thought of it excites most students, yet concerns many parents (and for good reason). Summer is a known time for increased alcohol, marijuana and other drug use, including first-time experimentation. What sets this season apart? Increased-Unsupervised-Free-Time.
At this transitional age, our children naturally seek their independence and our trust. But, the two can make for a risky combination, given the allure and pressure of, “friends and fun.”
Keep your child safe and drug-free with these Summertime Tips:
Set Summertime Rules: Make clear your rules regarding unsupervised time spent with friends, as well as your expectations surrounding drinking, smoking and other risky behaviors.
Supervise: If you are unable to be physically present when your child is at home, ask a neighbor to check in, or consider hiring a “buddy-sitter” to hang out with your tween during the day. Unsupervised youth are three times more likely to use alcohol or other drugs.
Monitor: Know with whom and where your child is at all times. Randomly call and text your child to check in, and don’t be afraid to check up on your child by calling another parent.
Engage: Provide some structure to your child’s summer by engaging him/her in a supervised activity (sports, camps, classes, etc.) or maybe even a summer job (babysitting, mowing lawns, dog-walking,etc.).
Team Up: Connect with the parents of your child’s friends and agree to each take a turn escorting the group of tweens on a local outing of their choice (zoo, amusement park, museum, etc.).
Stay Involved: Show your child you care by taking time out of your busy schedule to do something fun and interactive together this summer (head to the movies, volunteer together, take a bike ride, etc.).
Communicate: Regardless of season, it is always a good time to talk to your child about the dangers of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. Open (or maintain) the lines of communication and be your child’s trusted source of information.
Help your child enjoy a safe and drug-free summer, filled with positive experiences and fun times with family and friends.
This information provided by Know!, a program of the Drug Free Action Alliance, with funding support from United Way of Central Ohio. For more information visit www.helpthemknow.com