1. All Sports night Teen athletes stay healthy
Ananda Lennox, Coordinator of the Northampton Prevention Coalition

2. NPC: What do we do?
The Northampton Prevention Coalition is a small group of community members who work together to help reduce and delay teen substance use in the City of Northampton. We employ many different strategies which include, but are not limited to Social norming ( fixing misperceptions about the prevalence of teen substance use), The Safe Homes Directory in which parents pledge to not allow underage use of drugs or alcohol in their homes and the spirit behind it is to promote communication among families. And server trainings in which we certify local bartenders, servers, and package store staff in the proper handling of alcohol sales including carding and not over-serving intoxicated patrons.

3. NPC Who Are We?
Ananda Lennox, Karen Jarvis Vance, Katelyn Jopson

4. DatA we collect Prevention Needs Assessment Survey
Brief Parent/Guardian Survey
Brief Student Survey
Student Focus Groups

5. Why am I here?
Student athletes are at a greater risk for injury, and so greater risk for exposure to narcotic pain medications
Athletic involvement is a protective factor in regards to substance use, except for when peers involved promote a culture that encourages drug and alcohol use
Parents and guardians of athletes need to be informed of substance use trends that could adversely impact their students
Dr. Ruth Potee has a great video on prescription drugs that hopefully all of you have had a chance to watch.

6. Access to Prescription Drugs
----- Meeting Notes (10/12/17 11:05) -----
We have been in the midst of a nationwide opioid epidemic and Massachusetts has been hit very hard. The population most effected by this is the year age group, so NPC has been working hard to do solid prevention work for our high school aged students to stem the tide of those who go on to use. Strategies we employ include SBIRT, student athlete and student athlete family trainings, drug take back days, and education around the safe storage of prescription drugs. Parents can help by having conversations with their students about the proper use of prescription drugs and by locking up their own prescriptions to help prevent misuse by others. Lock boxes can be useful.
2017 percent of students who report use

7. What’s a parent to do?

8. Clear Rules = Less Substance Use

9. The Role of Consequences
Consequences can be positive as well as negaitve. Some families offer monetary incentives for avaoiding alcohol and drugs during the high school years by negotiating things like car insurance- if you agree to not drink or use drugs which are bad from your brain and make driving more dangerous, we, your parents, will pay for your car insurance.

10. Emerging Trends 2017
Historically, most commonly abused substances by underage youth are alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco
Tobacco has dropped significantly
Newer trends include vaping and dabbing

11. What is “Dabbing”?

12. Dabbing
Uses solvents to extract concentrated THC resins from marijuana in the form of an oil, wax or hard substance (shatter).
A dab is concentrated marijuana with 50-80% THC vs 12-13% in normal plant.
High and withdrawal symptoms are more intense.
THC tolerance increases.
High doses of THC can cause delusions,
hallucinations and even psychosis
Source:

13. Vaping ----- Meeting Notes (10/12/17 11:05) -----
We have included images of vaping devices because as you will soon see from our data, vaping rates have increased dramatically for all grades. It is very trendy right now to vape and since the products and what they contain are not currently regulated by the FDA, there is a lot of misconceptions around the safety of vaping. Students see it as a safe alternative to smoking and those who smoke marijuana use the vaping devices to smoke their marijuana as well.
Source:

14. Vaping Seen as a safer alternative to smoking traditional cigarettes
E-juices are NOT regulated by the FDA, so ingredients include harmful chemicals and nicotine
No e-juices are 100% nicotine –free
May be a safer alternative for those trying to quite cigarettes, but not a healthy choice for non-smokers
Becomes a vehicle for nicotine addiction
Convenient for smoking marijuana oils and concentrates
High school students use e-cigarettes 9 times more often than adults
24% of Massachusetts high school students used an e-cigarette in 2015
Source: GetOutraged.org

15. Social host law- explained

16. Social host law and you
What if my child allows underage guests to drink or possess alcohol at my home or other property I control?
You or your child may be charged criminally. For you to be found guilty under the Social Host Law, the Commonwealth must prove that you or your child knowingly or intentionally supplied, gave, provided, or allowed minors to possess alcohol at your home or other property you controlled. You or your child may also be sued civilly
Am I breaking the law if I allow my child’s underage guests to consume alcohol in my home?
Yes. The legal drinking age in Massachusetts is 21. It is against the law to serve or provide alcohol to underage guests or to allow them to drink alcohol in your home or on other property you control. If you do, you may be prosecuted criminally. The penalty is a fine of up to $2,000, imprisonment for up to a year, or both. M.G.L. c. 138, s. 34

17. Social host law

18. Addiction risk factors
Family History
Early Onset of Use
Frequency of Use
Early Childhood Trauma, Neglect, or Abuse
You may know the risk factors for your kids, but you do not know the risk factors for your kid’s friends. Air on the side of caution. Do not purposely or inadvertently expose someone’s child to alcohol or substances that could lead to addiction.

19. Connect with us! Like us on Facebook @NorthamptonPrevents
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Ananda Lennox, Coalition Coordinator at
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME AND ATTENTION!