SPEAKER

Posted by Robert Homann on Nov 16, 2016

Harvey Clark introduced our speaker - Barb Plante from the Apache Junction Drug Prevention Coalition.

The Coalition is working with students, parents and teachers at the high school, middle school and elementary school levels. Barb handed out the results of a survey done in 2014 in Pinal County. It asked for the reasons youth gave for using abused substances and also for not using them. The top 5 reason for using were: Have Fun, Get High, Deal with Stress, Other and Keep from Getting Sad. The top five reasons for not using were: Not Interested, Can Hurt Me, Parent Disapproval, Could Be Arrested and Morally Wrong. She also handed out a Coalition calendar of activities for 2016-17 that gave us specifics on how the Coalition operates and who they interact with. She mentioned that the average age when students begin drug experimentation is 13. Opioid pain killers are the substances most abused because they are easily accessible in the parents or grandparents medicine cabinets.

Barb asked club members to consider making a donation to the Coalition either as a club or as individuals. We are grateful the Coalition is helping prevent substance abuse and monitoring what is going on in the local schools.