Pubdate: Sat, 12 Jun 2004
Source: Journal News, The (NY)
Copyright: 2004 The Gannett Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.nyjournalnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1205
Author: Sulaiman Beg

TOWN DARES TO FIGHT SUBSTANCE ABUSE

The newly revamped Orangetown Substance Abuse Committee will focus its 
education, prevention and enforcement efforts on youth and their parents.

The 11-member steering committee, which was reorganized last month, is 
composed of police officers, town residents and substance abuse prevention 
specialists.

Councilman Denis Troy, who earlier this year called the committee "a joke" 
because it met twice in two years, said he hoped the committee would now be 
more effective in providing resources that would effectively curb underage 
substance abuse.

"Sometimes people take it for granted and don't want to get involved or 
they figure the police already know," said Troy, who will serve as the Town 
Board's liaison to the committee. "The public is the eyes and the ears for 
the force."

Last year, the town appointed two residents and one police officer from the 
department's Juvenile Aid Bureau to the committee, but held off on 
reappointing them in January.

The committee was formed in 1986 because, police officials said, there was 
an increase in marijuana use in Orangetown schools. The group laid the 
foundation for the town's school districts' involvement in the Drug Abuse 
Resistance Education program.

The new committee would serve as an umbrella organization to some of the 
smaller substance abuse programs in the town and school districts, like the 
South Orangetown Coalition Awareness of Substance Abuse and Students 
Against Destructive Decisions, said Detective Michael McPadden, a member of 
the committee and a student resource officer at Tappan Zee High School.

With graduation festivities beginning soon, McPadden said the committee 
will be working with the Rockland County Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Children to conduct undercover sting operations in the coming 
months to find out which retailers are selling alcohol and cigarettes to 
underage children.

He said parents needed to take a more active role in their children's lives 
and "need to be more street smart."

"We want to let parents know that they can be held liable if they host a 
party with underage drinking," said McPadden, a detective with the police 
department's Juvenile Aid Bureau. "We've come a long way. We want people to 
know that we exist. It's important that people know who we are."

He added that by arresting a teenager the problem is not solved.

"There needs to be education," he said.

Parents who knowingly allow underage drinking at their home could be 
charged with a first-degree misdemeanor and face up to one year in jail, 
McPadden said.

In addition to holding workshops and speaking at schools, the committee is 
setting up an anonymous underage drinking and substance abuse hotline. It 
will meet once a month.

Judy Ebeling, Nanuet school's student assistant counselor, said the 
committee will provide residents with information on what programs are 
available in the town.

"We're really in the beginning stages," said Ebeling of Pearl River, who 
served on the committee until 1991 and is a substance abuse prevention 
specialist. "We're hammering stuff out. We want to find out what's going on 
in the town and making people aware."

Town Supervisor Thom Kleiner said the committee would supplement the work 
the Police Department, youth officers and the school district have already 
done.

"It's a good thing," he said. "It will make sure they are communicating as 
well as they can."

Anne Marie Mills, who has four children in Pearl River schools, said 
underage substance abuse is a growing concern for parents all over the nation.

"There's a lot of alcohol and drug abuse out there," she said. "A lot of 
times parents are not aware of what their kids are doing."
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