Pubdate: Tue, 04 Jan 2005
Source: Albert Lea Tribune (MN)
Copyright: 2005 Albert Lea Tribune Inc.
Contact:  http://www.albertleatribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3521
Author: Ann Austin
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?135 (Drug Education)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

CADET TEACHES KIDS THE DANGERS OF DRUG USE

Any education about the effect of drugs or chemicals can make a
difference with kids, at least that is what the Community Alcohol and
Drug Education Team believes.

"Our mission statement is to establish the community norm where youth
drug and alcohol use is unacceptable," said team member Phil Bartusek,
lieutenant for the Albert Lea Police Department.

The CADET group, active for over a decade, involves members from many
area agencies including all school districts, law enforcement, Public
Health, Albert Lea Medical Center, Fountain Centers, Freeborn County
Chemical Dependency Center, Human Services, Court Services, and other
members of the community. The team was formed with grants from the
tobacco settlement years ago and has been funded with other grants
dealing with youth risk behaviors with alcohol and drugs.

Since kids are more likely to try harder drugs like cocaine and
methamphetamine if they have already used tobacco and alcohol, the
team's focus is on gateway drugs.

"Kids just aren't going to snort coke, use marijuana or meth unless
they use gateway drugs," Bartusek said.

Since the early 1990s, the team has participated in tobacco compliance
checks, retailer training sessions, and training on how to look for
fake IDs. Team members have also given presentations at schools about
the effects of different chemicals. They have also developed programs
to address drug prevention.

Project Alert is one of the programs active at Alden and
Glenville-Emmons schools educating middle grade students how to
identify different kinds of pressures to use drugs, learning how to
say no and practicing resistance skills, according to Public Health
Educator Michelle Severtson, who has been teaching the program at
Glenville-Emmons the past four years.

"The main issues are drinking, smoking and marijuana use," she said.
Project Alert is set at eleven sessions with videos, educational skits
and lots of group work. "They really like doing the skits where they
get to practice saying 'no,'" Severtson said.

Severtson mainly works with fifth-graders, since sixth-graders
participate in the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program. "It's just
trying to get in and get the time with the kids," Severtson said.
"Kids these days are seeing a lot more with drug abuse or alcohol
abuse than what they've seen in the past."

"Now they're being pressured from siblings or older kids, but it's not
like when they're in junior high," Severtson said. Kids are also
concerned about how they can help their parents quit, she said.

Education can go a long way with children, who may not know all of the
harm that can happen when they use chemicals.

"We're trying to let them know the first time when they drink or smoke
or do drugs that consequences can happen. They think nothing is going
to happen to them, but if they drink too much they can get alcohol
poisoning or be killed in a car accident," Severtson said.

"It gives them a heads-up on what's out there for drugs...telling them
it's not okay to smell their glue or markers or gasoline," she said.

But it's not just kids who need to be aware of the problems that
addiction can bring.

CADET has educated the public on meth the past couple of years, but
since other agencies are getting more involved with meth, they will
shift their focus back to gateway drugs.

"This year we're going to be switching back to alcohol," said
Severtson. "Alcohol is pretty readily available. It is abused big time
here."

To decrease youth's use of alcohol, CADET will work to do more
compliance checks and increase training for people who work at alcohol
distribution sites. They are also looking at implementing a best
practice program where 70 percent of employees will have to attend
educational classes.

But it's not just retailers who will be focused upon-adult providers
will also be addressed.

"That's part of our mission with the project, go after the adult
provider and address the dangers of drinking and what it costs us,"
Bartusek said.

And the past two years, the team has focused on a smoke free workplace
ordinance, which they have been actively educating the public about,
getting as much input as they can through surveys and phone calls.

The group hopes that, through education and preventative measures,
changes will happen in the county. Bartusek relates chemical addiction
issues to a lawn full of dandelions. "If you don't get to the root of
the problem, they're going to be back. We feel the root of our issues
are gateway drugs. If we can keep young kids from drinking and
smoking, it will save us down the line." 
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