OH: Efforts to fight teen alcohol use showing results
By Katie White, Staff Writer
March 26, 2018
EAST PALESTINE — A federal grant awarded to the Family Recovery Center in 2011 is still being used to combat alcohol use among youth.
Brenda Foor of the FRC and ADAPT Coalition said the county has seen a decrease in alcohol consumption among youth since the coalition was formed in 2009.
ADAPT stands for Alcohol Drug Abuse Prevention Team and Foor presented an update to the East Palestine Area Chamber of Commerce during its meeting this week.
“We are working on trying to reduce underage alcohol consumption in the county,” she said.
The grant awarded in 2011 was the Drug Free Communities grant, which is a competitive grant administered by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy in partnership with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
The ADAPT Coalition was one of 87 awarded the $115,828 grant from more than 450 applicants, according to the original press release announcing the grant.
To qualify for the grant, winners had to have at least a six-month working relationship on substance abuse reduction initiatives, a long-term plan to reduce substance abuse, and participate in the national evaluation of the Drug Free Communities Support Program.
Foor said the East Palestine Police Department is heading up compliance checks locally for the ADAPT Coalition, and those will begin soon.
Compliance checks are when a designated person attempts to buy alcohol under the legal age of 21 in stores to see if the stores are abiding by the law.
“If they serve to underage youth they get fined and have to go to court,” Foor said.
Foor also said that in a community parent survey the coalition does each year, results showed that prescription drug abuse is becoming an issue.
She said people should take advantage of the prescription medication drop-off locations throughout the county, which are the police departments in East Palestine, Columbiana, Lisbon, Leetonia, Salem, East Liverpool and the county sheriff’s office.
She said the drop-off boxes are emptied by the county Drug Task Force once a week to every two weeks and the medication is disposed of by Heritage Thermal Services free of charge.
“That is a big project … It is nice to see that people aren’t hanging onto their medications,” she said.
She added that liquid medication can be disposed of by mixing cat litter or coffee grounds and a little bit of water into a plastic bag before being tossed in the trash.
Those wishing to dispose of used medication needles can contact the county health department, which will provide a needle disposal container for $3, she added.
More information on the coalition can be found online at www.adaptcoalition.org.