Iowa Drug Drop
On Saturday, October 31, five locations in and around Des Moines, Iowa will serve as "drug drops," where medications that are no longer needed can be handed over for safe disposal. The event is being hosted by the Polk County Substance Abuse and Addictions Workgroup.

"Prescription and over-the-counter drug abuse is a growing problem," the Des Moines Register reported in an article announcing the drug drop program. "If you have expired or unused medications dispose of them in an environmentally safe way by bringing them to one of the drug drop locations."

The following locations will host the drops:

• Ankeny Fire Station
• Wadle & Associates, PC (Urbandale)
• Northern Warren Fire Station (Des Moines)
  
• Pleasant Hill Fire Station
• Des Moines Fire Station #6

Keeping out-of-date or otherwise no longer useful medications in the house -- or disposing of them in unsafe manners -- can lead to a number of health and safety concerns, and has been identified as a contributor to rising rates of prescription drug abuse by teens.

Labels: prescription drugs, safety, iowa

Posted By: Aspen/CRC 0 Comments

The dangers of teen alcohol abuse have been widely documented, and many parents are rightly concerned about the dangers that alcohol can pose to their adolescent or teenage children.

Most of these worries center upon the effect that alcohol abuse can inflict upon healthy development, or the odds that a young person will get into an automobile accident while under the influence. But an April 9 New York Times article by Jennifer 8. Lee called attention to another danger: biking while intoxicated.

Some 21 percent of autopsies for New York City bicyclists who died within three hours of their accidents detected alcohol in the body, according to a Department of Health and Mental Hygiene study that examined fatal bicycling accidents in New York City from 1996 to 2005.

"It's something we have to call attention to," said Catherine Stayton, director of the health department's injury epidemiology unit. "To learn this is new for us. We want to get that information out there." ...

The study also found that alcohol was detected in six percent of the drivers involved in bicycle crashes.

Labels: alcohol_abuse, teenagers, safety

Posted By: Aspen/CRC 0 Comments

Schools in Billerica, Massachusetts, may soon have some new faces roaming the halls. The School Committee is considering whether to allow drug-sniffing dogs to search the schools.

The searches would be random and unannounced. The dogs, which are trained to sniff out marijuana, cocaine, and heroin, would be able to search all school property, including lockers, classrooms, parking lots, and storage areas.

Police Chief Dan Rosa said that he believes the step is necessary for improving school safety. The move toward drug-sniffing dogs was prompted, in part, by a recent survey of more than 2,000 students which found that marijuana use among the city's students was 111 percent higher than the national average. Source: The Lowell Sun

Labels: safety, drug-sniffing dogs, high_school

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 0 Comments