Fourteen Businesses Keep Youth from Accessing Alcohol in Van Buren County

On January 17^th Alcohol Compliance Checks were completed at 16 alcohol establishments in Van Buren County. Congratulations to the businesses who checked the ID and refused the sale, they included: AJ’s, American Legion, Boyd Grocery, Casey’s, Circle B, First Street Grille, Birmingham Jet Stop, Bonaparte Jet Stop, Milton Jet Stop, Moore’s Grocery, Riverbend Pizza & Steakhouse, Tillie’s Tap, Town & Country Tavern and the Vet’s Club.  

Two businesses, Douds Kwik Stop and River’s Edge Pub & Grub, made sales to a person under the age of 21. The clerks making alcohol sales were issued citations for furnishing alcohol to a person under the legal age. The business may face additional fines from the alcohol and beverage division of Iowa.

The ultimate goal of the compliance checks are to keep youth from accessing alcohol from local retail outlets. The community wants to be sure that all merchants are taking action against youth alcohol access. This can be accomplished by ensuring that all employees are properly trained in checking identification cards. It is important that all employees check the ID of anyone who looks under the age of 40. This process will ensure that youth are unable to purchase alcohol from local retailers.

In an effort to protect the young people of our community, The Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office will continue to do random alcohol compliance checks of all alcohol establishments in the county. If your business would like to take part in a FREE merchant alcohol training you may contact the Van Buren County SAFE Coalition at 319-293-6412.

YLC News

By Jacinta Wenke

In Van Buren County, the Youth Leadership Council or YLC sponsored National Drugs Fact Week in our community. The reason for this week is to shatter myths about drugs and a health observance. Van Buren YLC members along with many other organizations across the U.S.A. in partnership with NIDA encouraged teens to get the facts about drugs through a variety of events this past week.

Each day of the week we taught and talked about a different drug. For the whole week we put up different posters, kept some up all week, and had announcements every day. We had themes and activities for each day. Monday was marijuana; there was peer teaching at the elementary and students put up a display at the school in the front case. Tuesday was tobacco; there were numbers hung around the school and we asked students to guess what they meant in regards to smoking and there was a mystery box guessing contest during lunch. Wednesday was Prescription and Over the Counter Drugs; there were medicine bottle facts and posters for that day. Thursday was Underage Drinking; there was a balloon scavenger hunt this day; finally on Friday there were a variety of miscellaneous drugs that were addressed by posters with facts.

Some of the facts that were shared with the students this week include the following:

·         Marijuana can affect learning and memory by acting in the hippocampus of the brain in a negative way.

·         People who smoke in their teens become regular smokers and e-cigarettes are not a safer alternative to smoking.

·         If medicine is not prescribed to you and used in the wrong way it is drug abuse.

·         Approximately 5,000 people under the age of 21 die each year from injuries caused by underage drinking and about 40% of those are car crashes.

·         Inhalants, synthetic drugs, steroids, meth, heroine, and many more have a negative impact on your brain. Some of these drugs can lead to death.

Don’t chance losing your life, live a life free of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. For more information on how to get facts on the drugs you may visit the website www.drugabuse.gov or contact the SAFE Coalition at 319-293-6412 or at info@vbsafecoalition.com.

Van Buren County is selected for a Partnership for Success Award

SAMHSA's Partnerships for Success (PFS) grant programs (PFS I, PFS II, and PFS 2013) provide eligible states and jurisdictions with funds to achieve quantifiable declines in state-wide substance abuse rates. These programs are designed to address gaps in prevention services and increase the ability of states to assist high-need communities with serious, emerging substance abuse problems. PFS grant programs are also intended to bring SAMHSA’s Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) to a national scale, providing opportunities for recipients to acquire additional resources to implement the SPF process at the state and community levels.

In 2009, SAMHSA announced the PFS I grant program, which funded (for up to five years) eligible states and jurisdictions to decrease state-wide substance abuse rates by meeting or exceeding quantifiable, state-wide, prevention performance targets. SAMHSA also offered PFS I grantees a performance incentive of $500,000 to participants who met or exceeded their performance targets by the end of Year 3. Only states and jurisdictions who received a Cohort I or II Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPF SIG) were eligible to receive PFS I. The overall goals of PFS I are as follows:

·         Reduce substance abuse-related problems

·         Prevent the onset and reduce the progression of substance abuse, including childhood and underage drinking;

·         Strengthen capacity and infrastructure at the state- and community-levels in support of prevention;

·         Leverage, redirect and realign state-wide funding streams for prevention.

In 2012 and 2013, SAMHSA announced two additional Partnerships for Success grant programs (PFS II and PFS 2013), both designed to address two of the nation's top substance abuse prevention priorities:

·         underage drinking among individuals ages 12 to 20

·         prescription drug misuse and abuse among individuals ages 12 to 25

These programs provide additional resources to states for implementing the SPF process at the state and community levels, and promote the alignment and leveraging of prevention resources and priorities at the federal, state, and community levels. Funding for PFS II was awarded to 15 grantees for three years. Eligible grantees included Substance Abuse Block Grant recipients who completed a SPF SIG and did not receive PFS I funds. Funding for PFS 2013 was awarded to 16 grantees for five years, Iowa was one of these recipients. Eligible grantees for PFS 2013 included Substance Abuse Block Grant recipients who completed a SPF SIG and did not receive PFS I or II funding. This money is then filtered down to the local communities in need.

Van Buren County will receive Partnership for Success Funding to continue the work of the SAFE Coalition by addressing underage and binge drinking. These funds will begin February 1, 2015 and run through September 29, 2019. The coalition will spend the first year completing a community assessment to identify the impact they have had over the last 10 years with the Drug Free Communities Funds and determine the next steps to continue making community change in Van Buren County.

For more information on the Partnership for Success Funds or any SAFE Coalition activities you may contact the coalition at 319-293-6412, via email at info@vabsafecoalition.com or check us out one the web at www.vbsafecoalition.com.

WHAT IS PMP? IOWA PRESCRIPTION MONITORING PROGRAM (PMP)

The Iowa PMP provides authorized prescribers and pharmacists with information regarding their patients’ use of Schedule II, III, and IV controlled substances, a tool in determining appropriate prescribing and treatment of patients without fear of contributing to a patient’s abuse or dependence on addictive drugs or diversion of those drugs to illicit use. The database contains controlled substance dispensing information from Iowa pharmacies beginning January 1, 2009, and will maintain records for four years following the date of dispensing. Iowa pharmacies are required to report dispensing information to the program at least weekly. Effective January 1, 2013, nonresident Iowa pharmacies that dispense into Iowa began weekly reporting of controlled substances prescriptions delivered to patients located in Iowa.

All information contained in the PMP database, including records of requests for patient prescription history reports, is privileged and strictly confidential and is not subject to public or open records laws.  Authorized health care practitioners (prescribers and pharmacists) may, but are not required to, access PMP information regarding their patients’ use of controlled substances to assist them in determining appropriate treatment options and to improve the quality of patient care. The PMP provides health care practitioners with another health care tool. The PMP database assists practitioners in identifying potential diversion, misuse, or abuse of controlled substances by their patients while facilitating the most appropriate and effective medical use and verifying appropriate use of those addictive substances.

Health care practitioners who are authorized to prescribe or dispense controlled substances may obtain PMP information regarding their patients, or regarding patients seeking treatment from the health care practitioner, for the purpose of providing health care.

For more information on the PMP System please contact the SAFE Coalition at 319-293-6412 or at info@vbsafecoalition.com.  

Harmony Jr. High School National Drug Facts Week Activities

Harmony High School National Drug Facts Week Activities

National Drug Facts Week 2015

By Braxton Dye

Teenagers from the Van Buren Youth Leadership Council (YLC) have joined forces with other teens and scientists across the United States as part of “National Drug Facts Week” (NDFW).  The week-long health observance, organized by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, takes place Monday, January 26^th through Sunday, February 1^st.  NDFW celebrates the inquisitive minds of teens by giving them a space (virtual or physical) to ask questions about drugs and to get scientific answers from experts.  During this week the Harmony Middle School, Harmony High School and Van Buren High School YLC Members are doing activities to help prevent and stop people from using all illegal (not prescribed) drugs. 

About a third of high school seniors across the country report using an illicit drug sometime in the past year, and more than ten percent report non-medical use of a narcotic painkiller.  While drugs can put a teenager’s health and life in jeopardy, many teens are not aware of the risks. Even for those teens who do not abuse drugs, many have friends or family who do, and they are often looking for ways to help them. 

In 2006 16% of 8^th graders had tried “Mary Jane” or Marijuana and it is easy to get addicted to.  The following are facts about the dangers of marijuana use for the members of Van Buren County: causes problems with memory, causes dry mouth and blood shot eyes, time passes slowly, causes “the munchies”, loss of coordination, increases heart rate and smells bad.

We want teens to have the opportunity to learn what science has taught us about drug abuse and addiction.  There are so many myths about drugs cluttering our popular culture.  National Drug Facts Week is for teens to get honest answers about drugs so they can make good, informed decisions for themselves and share accurate information with friends.

At Harmony Middle School six male 7^th graders are talking to the 5^th graders about the consequences of drugs, alcohol and tobacco use.  Faith Diephuis’s group is going to do activities with 3^rd graders to prevent the addiction of smoking.  Krista White’s group is making posters to hang up in the school’s hallways so students can walk by and read many facts about the use of tobacco.  There will also be two students on the radio on KMEM’s Coffee Break discussing National Drug Facts Week and the consequences of drug use. 

At Harmony High School YLC Members will be peer teaching at the elementary school on the dangers of substance abuse, holding a Balloon Scavenger Hunt with Drug Facts and they will be hanging posters in the hallways of the school and in the community. 

The Van Buren High School YLC Members will be focusing on a different drug each day.  On Monday students will focus on Marijuana and provide Peer Teaching at the Van Buren Community Elementary School.  Tuesday will focus on Tobacco and there will be a social norms campaign as well as a mystery box at lunch.  Wednesday will highlight the dangers of Rx abuse with pill bottle facts and posters in the school.  Thursday will address underage drinking by holding a scavenger hunt at lunch.  Friday students will address other miscellaneous drugs by posting facts and information around the school. 

For more information on National Drug Facts Week or the work of Van Buren County YLC please contact the SAFE Coalition at 319-293-6412 or at info@vbsafecoalition.com.  You can also find more information on the SAFE Coalition Website www.vbsafecoalition.com or the YLC Website http://ylc.vbsafecoalition.com