SAFE Choices: Choose Knowledge

Choose knowledge and gain the power to empower with these publications, journals, and reports that pertain to youth substance prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery.

Recent Highlights

Week of January 10, 2022:

• GetSmartAboutDrugs.gov: Drug Paraphernalia – How Much Do You Really Know?
  Check out the Get Smart About Drugs DEA resource for parents, educators, and caregivers to increase your knowledge about drug paraphernalia – a step that could save a life.

Week of January 3, 2022:

• Truth Initiative: New survey finds that more than half of young people consider quitting vaping in 2022
  “With findings showing that over half of young e-cigarette users want to quit and many have tried, learn why it is more important than ever to promote resources and tools that will help young people successfully quit vaping.”

Week of December 27, 2021:

• United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) news release: “Emoji Drug Code Decoded”
  “Criminal Drug Networks are killing Americans and they are using social media to deliver deadly doses of fentanyl”, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram.
  • YouTube Video
  • Emoji Fact Sheet

Week of December 20, 2021:

• Short Takes with NIAAA
  Short takes video series on the topic of alcohol: “What are alcohol induced black outs?”, “What is alcohol use disorder?”, “What is binge drinking?”, and “What is alcohol overdose?”
• Monitoring the future survey results:
  “We have never seen such dramatic decreases in drug use among teens in just a one-year period,” National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Nora Volkow, M.D., said in a news release. “These data are unprecedented and highlight one unexpected potential consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused seismic shifts in the day-to-day lives of adolescents. Moving forward, it will be crucial to identify the pivotal elements of this past year that contributed to decreased drug use – whether related to drug availability, family involvement, differences in peer pressure, or other factors – and harness them to inform future prevention efforts.”
• New survey shows progress on curbing teen vaping, but e-cigarette use remains high as access to flavors, risk of nicotine addiction, and impact on youth mental health concerns grow
  “The 2021 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey data released today show progress in the fight to curb youth nicotine vaping, signaling efforts to provide education to prevent e-cigarette use and quitting resources are starting to work.”

Week of December 6, 2021:

• National Institute on Drug Abuse: Nurturing My Mental & Emotional Health
  “Mental and emotional wellbeing is critical to overall health. By supporting teens in developing healthy coping skills, you can set them up for success in dealing with stress and challenging circumstances in the future.”
• SAMHSA: Listen to Yourself for Signs of Mental and Substance Use Disorders (Video)
  “As a young adult, your mental health or substance use may worry you but asking for help should not.”

Week of November 29, 2021:

• DrugFree.org: Ridesharing Services May Reduce Number of Alcohol-Involved Crashes
  “A new study finds more ridesharing trips with services such as Uber or Lyft may result in fewer alcohol-involved crashes.”
• JustThinkTwice.gov: Getting High and Driving
  “Drugged driving is driving under the influence of alcohol, over-the-counter medications, prescription drugs, or illegal drugs.”

Week of November 22, 2021:

• USA Today: Drug overdoses surged amid COVID lockdowns
  “More than 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses during the 12 months following the COVID-19 lockdowns, the most overdose deaths ever recorded in a one-year span, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

Week of November 15, 2021:

• SAMHSA Advisory: Prescription Stimulant Misuse Among Youth and Young Adults
  “This Advisory reviews the evidence on prescription stimulant misuse among youth and young adults. It establishes prescription stimulant misuse as a public health problem, identifies associated risk and protective factors, and provides programs and action steps for stakeholders to prevent misuse.”

Week of November 8, 2021:

• SAMHSA releases 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health
  “The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has released findings from the 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). The data suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the nation’s well-being. Americans responding to the NSDUH survey reported that the coronavirus outbreak adversely impacted their mental health, including by exacerbating use of alcohol or drugs among people who had used drugs in the past year.”
• The National Child Traumatic Stress Network Releases Fact Sheet: TRAUMA-INFORMED SCHOOL STRATEGIES DURING COVID-19
  “This fact sheet offers information on the physical and emotional well-being of staff, creating a trauma-informed learning environment, identifying and assessing traumatic stress, addressing and treating traumatic stress, trauma education and awareness, partnerships with students and families, cultural responsiveness, emergency management and crisis response, and school discipline policies and practices.”
• White House Releases Fact Sheet: IMPROVING ACCESS AND CARE FOR YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH AND SUBSTANCE USE CONDITIONS
  “Even before the pandemic, demand for mental health and substance use services was increasing, especially for our nation’s young people. The COVID-19 pandemic has only made the situation more challenging, subjecting many young Americans to social isolation, loss of routines, and traumatic grief.”

For more information about SAFE Choices, contact
Senior Director Ronna Yablonski at: ronna@safeproject.us

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