Holcomb Behavioral Health Systems announced that the Committee on Prevention Education (COPE), an alcohol, tobacco and drug prevention support program, has extra funds available for drug and alcohol prevention activities.The funding is available for grassroots community groups (Act 211 groups, PTO’s, civic associations, community tasks forces, etc.), post-prom committees, and/or non-profit organizations to implement activities, educational programming, and school or community events that are specific to preventing youth substance use, and/or increasing community awareness of substance abuse issues.This community-based prevention program has supported a variety of activities including: family game nights, drug-free concerts and dances, high school after prom parties, town hall meetings, and evidence-based and parenting programs.
Via media.patch.com

The specter of a burned-out Baby Boomer using hard drugs way into middle age may conjure images of addiction, destruction and death.That certainly can be true, but it’s not the complete picture, at least according to a new study from researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who found that people who occasionally use drugs like cocaine, amphetamines and opiates over the course of their lives are more common than anyone might suspect.“When you think of a drug user, you often think of someone strung-out, using every day, and in deep trouble, but national data shows that that’s not the most common thing you see,” says Dr. Stefan Kertesz, an associate professor in the UAB Division of Preventive Medicine. “The most common pattern is illicit drug use at lower levels.”In other words, these sporadic drug users are “dabblers,” says Kertesz, lead author of the study that followed more than 4,300 people from four cities recruited between the ages of 18 to 30 in 1985 and 1986 — and then tracked them for almost 20 years.He confirmed what he suspected from his experience in clinical care: that some perfectly functional middle-agers still turn to the drugs of their youth.
Via www.witn.com

Tweeting or checking emails may be harder to resist than cigarettes and alcohol, according to researchers who tried to measure how well people could resist their desires.They even claim that while sleep and sex may be stronger urges, people are more likely to give in to longings or cravings to use social and other media.A team headed by Wilhelm Hofmann of Chicago University’s Booth Business School say their experiment, using BlackBerrys, to gauge the willpower of 205 people aged between 18 and 85 in and around the German city of Würtzburg is the first to monitor such responses “in the wild” outside a laboratory.
Via www.guardian.co.uk

Teenage drug use is a constant problem. Now more teens are turning to heroin.According to local drug counselors, they’re seeing more high schoolers using heroin because it’s cheaper and easier to get.For a long time, prescription drugs like Oxycodone and Oxycontin were popular because they were found in the medicine cabinet.But getting a prescription and high cost of the drug put a limit on where addicts could turn. The connection between oxycondone and heroin is opiate. A highly addictive substance used to relieve pain.”Easier to get if the youth don’t have somebody to get the pills. Somebody’s got to get it prescribed to them and have in their possession and be willing to sell it. Where heroin it’s just there to be sold on the streets,” explains drug counselor Penny Bell.
Via www.kndo.com

Health authorities have decided upon a cross-border strategy on a minimum price for alcohol.Health authorities have decided upon a cross-border strategy on a minimum price for alcohol.The proposals were outlined at the first formal North/South conference on alcohol misuse, held in Armagh on Thursday.Health Minister Edwin Poots was joined by the Irish Republic’s Health Minister Dr James Reilly and Minister of State for Health Roisin Shortall.They said they hoped to agree a minimum drink price before December 2012.
Via www.bbc.co.uk

You soon may be able to get a different kind of brew at your neighborhood Starbucks. The coffee company announced this week they will begin selling beer and wine at stores in Atlanta, Chicago, Southern California and the Pacific Northwest by the end of 2012.Starbucks has not yet identified the locations yet, however there will be four to six shops serving alcohol in the Atlanta area later this year. They will also serve premium food such as savory snacks, small plates and hot flatbreads.
Via peachtreecorners.patch.com

October 6, 2011, was an unusually silent Thursday night in Blacker Hovse. The courtyard was quiet, devoid of the loud music usually played by Ricketts Hovse on such a night. The crowd usually attracted by Thursday Night Drinking, or TND, in Ricketts, was suspiciously absent. The evening was disturbingly calm.Calm, until Priyam Patel ran into an otherwise placid Blacker lounge and yelled:“Alcohol has been banned on campus!”Caltech, like many private colleges across the nation, is a “wet” school. Students of-age (over 21) are allowed to possess and consume alcohol in private. According to the previous alcohol policy, officially registered student parties could serve alcohol via bartenders with relatively little hassle or approval required. Major campus parties such as Big Interhouse (Big I), as well as smaller parties such as Apache or Page Interhouse, have historically had free-flowing booze available through the alcohol policy. The primary requirements of the old policy were the existence of an “Event Host” to organize the paperwork, “professional bartenders” to serve the alcohol, and permission from three organizations, including the Undergraduate Deans. But this may no longer be the case.
Via tech.caltech.edu

Lager drinkers are in for a shock after brewing giant AB InBev decided to cut the alcohol volume in Stella Artois, Budweiser and Beck’s, according to The Grocer.
The shake-up of the three top brands should save millions of pounds that will offset duty hikes and cost increases, the trade magazine says.
The world’s largest brewer is cutting the alcohol volume of the popular beers from 5per cent to 4.8per cent.

Via www.dailymail.co.uk

A second roll-your-own-cigarette smoke shop, Green Leaf Smokes, has opened up at 1326 Sheepshead Bay Road, off the corner of East 14th Street. It’s the second such business to open in the area, following the November opening of City Smokes at 2695 Coney Island Avenue.These shops allow customers to come in and pick a blend of “organic” tobacco that is mixed to emulate the flavors of big brands. Customers buy the tobacco loose, purchase papers and filters, and then use the store’s rolling machines to roll up their own cigarettes.It’s a new type of business designed to get around the high taxes the city charges for pre-rolled cigarettes. However, two of the oldest stores in New York City – one in Chinatown and one in Manhattan – were the target of a city lawsuit claiming they’re illegally dodging the taxes, since customers still walk out of the store with rolled cigarrettes.
Via www.sheepsheadbites.com

Health groups call for federal action on kid-friendly tobacco novelties.On the occasion of National Non Smoking Week, a group of national and provincial health agencies is calling for the federal government to crack down on the marketing of tobacco novelties aimed at youth.“Within the shadow of Parliament Hill, we were easily able to find deadly tobacco products that look like candy or a fruit roll-up,” said Dr. Atul Kapur, President of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada. “These are exactly the types of products that the government set out to ban three years ago.” Dr. Kapur displayed some of the 19 different products that were found in over 60 different flavours in stores in downtown Ottawa.When the Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act was passed in September 2009, there was a widespread belief that this new law would end the sale of flavoured cigarillos, as it was intended to do. There was also widespread hope among many that the government would extend the ban to flavoured smokeless tobacco and flavoured shisha (waterpipe tobacco).
Via www.smoke-free.ca