Home drug, alcohol kits to be handed out at awareness seminar

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

by Michael Nowotny

Mountain Home News

The Mountain home School District, in cooperation with state anti-drug programs, will be offering a special set of student and parent seminars Feb. 13 at the junior high.

The seminar that night will include providing to parents with free drug and alcohol testing kits.

Idaho Drug Free Youth has officially announced the launch of i2i in Mountain Home, a statewide community underage drinking prevention program.

The program will help address the issue on many levels and help change the community, organizers said.

IDFY will visit 30 communities within Idaho to assist in achieving the goal of educating parents and caring adults about their responsibilities toward stopping underage drinking.

The i2i program was launched by the work of "Brattz" (Military Brats Rejecting Alcohol Tobacco Tolerance Zero), a state-wide recognized youth coalition that advocates healthy young lifestyles.

The i2i program is joined in partnership by the Mountain Home School District and the Mountain Home Air Force Base youth programs.

"This is a program of how underage drinking affects us all," said Lissa Hall, of the Mountain Home Air Force Base Youth Program.

The local organizations that made the i2i project possible are the Idaho Millennium Fund, the Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections, Kootenai-Benwah Medical Alliance and the Cancer and Community Charities fund.

The i2i consists of 3 parts: 1. Peers: Eye To Eye; 2. Youth and Adults: Eye To Eye, and 3. Parent Tool Kit.

The Peers: Eye to Eye program features a one day workshop at Mountain Home Jr. High to help inspire connections among their peers and going over things like peer pressure and self-esteem. The goal for that portion of the program is to reduce barriers to learning by promoting research based protective factors.

The program will be offered to 8th-grade students during regular school hours on Feb. 13.

The Youth and Adults: Eye To Eye features an evening presentation focused on key research. The goal for that portion of the program is to provide parents and adults with invaluable information on the adolescent brain and alcohol, and to initiate important discussions among participants.

The evening portion of the program will be held Feb. 13 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Mountain Home Junior High School. All parents and students are invited to attend.

The evening program also will include a parents panel, including three adults who work in the counseling field -- Fritz DeLange, former drug counselor at MHAFB, who now works as a counselor for kids, Bob Coleman, a counselor at Three Springs treatment facility, and Lynn Crenshaw, principal of the Virtual Academy, an alternative school out of Boise. The panel will include three youths who have all had different outlooks in regards to underage drinking.

Brattz will feature a sketch called "Turn Around," during the evening presentation. "We hope the presentation is entertaining and informative," said Hall.

The goal for part three is to equip parents and adults with resource information, drug testing supplies and discussion starters. A free tool kit will be given out to every family that participates in the evening workshop.

The tool kit will include two in-home drug tests and two alcohol breathalyzer kits. The kit also will include important conversation starters for families. If guests want to request additional kits, they will be on sale for $20 on the day of the presentation or available on the group's web site for $30.

If at least 100 people attend the parenting portion of the program, the entire program is free. If less than 100 attend, the cost for the program to the school district is $25.

For questions or more information call Lissa Hall at 828-2501.

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  • Haha. Nothing says TRUST quite like forcing your teenagers to take at-home drug and alcohol tests...

    -- Posted by mrfresh28 on Wed, Jan 30, 2008, at 10:11 AM
  • I for one am glad to see this...I do not think that every parent in Mtn. Home should subject their teen or tween to the drug/alcohol tests, but if you suspect you child is "testing the waters," so to say, then why not start at home? Have them take the test, get the results, and go from there, we are parents are we not?

    -- Posted by ME1 on Wed, Jan 30, 2008, at 11:47 AM
  • Those tests are so easy to beat it's not even funny, ME1. But more power to you.

    -- Posted by mrfresh28 on Wed, Jan 30, 2008, at 3:35 PM
  • I think this is a really great Idea , for a few, but wholesale testing "unzipping the zipper for the kipper" is not a good idea.

    Drug testing is really not about drugs, its a loyalty test thats why corps are giving them to people who flip bergers for a living, I know it sounds nuts but its true

    go "Google" type in "State of Idaho" web site, look for "find Law", type in "Marijuana" and then sit and read the Idaho law for Marijuana carefully, those laws are called " Rockfeller drug Laws" and google "Prairie Village Kansas" and go to their web site " and they have "Rockfeller Drug Laws too" but worst!!!! we don't vote on these laws the are inported from other defected states, As a parent ask yourself a question "do these laws work" No, they are not suppose too, its not real law, it allows states to build more and more and more Prisons and it don't protect nobody,last year Our Government Arrested 859.000 people at a cost of over 40 billion dollars and this has been going on for 40 years, over 35 MILLION plus people have been arrested since 1970, now who pays for this and what has this done but harm the American People. you think I want medical marijuan legal, thats not the issue here, its the lying, the money, the jails,and the killings. the government targets "young people, old people , sick people, poor people, the Government never seems to tartget the real people who's doing this too us, Nope they like it this way and they never seem to run the money down or solve the problem, do you know BC Canada, the home of BC Bud, will they make about 37 billion dollars a year selling Marijuana to the United States,does the City of Mountain Home have 37 billion dollars, no, how long do we have to put up with this stuff. I would say this too you , you are a good parent, but drug testing is NOT the answer, the problem is far bigger than that. go get with other Parents and ask them too wake the heck up and see and report the truth, because there's nothing new here folks, and then talk to our state legistature, Governor Otter, Mayor Risk and our New Police Chief John Walter and tell them " this game is over, time too regulate" and if they blow smoke at ya, "time for recall" why, because you as a parent, don't have time do you, none of you do, thats why you think drug tests will help,? prison's don't, rockeffer laws don't, cops with guns don't, so why do parents think drugs test will, they don't, we need real laws, then this thing will end

    -- Posted by Freedom on Wed, Jan 30, 2008, at 4:46 PM
  • FREEDOM,

    Before you start writing make sure you know who the City Officials are it is not Mayor RISK it is Mayor Rist, or learn how to spell. I believe that everything starts at HOME, and if we can save just ONE child, by doing at home drug testing then it's worth the effort....This town is ridden by drugs that we have to save the kids and hope they don't involved in any of it. These kids need to know that we are going to start putting a stop to it before it starts. Those tests may be easy to beat, but I would hope that if I took one home to my child who I thought was involved in drugs/alcohol, that he/she would see that it is not a trust issue that it is because I love that child and would do anything in the world for them.

    We do need to let the city police, county sheriff's office, and city officials know that we are tired of it, but those officers and deputies can only do so much. It really does start at home when it comes to our children.

    -- Posted by ME1 on Thu, Jan 31, 2008, at 10:48 AM
  • Hmmmmm, it appears freedom's Tourette's have kicked in or something, I couldn't read half of that.

    As for your kids ME1, why not teach them to think for themselves and make their own decisions? What does peeing in a cup because mom says so teach them? Obedience?

    Look this one up. Did you know most of the hardcore narcotics such as cocaine and methamphetamines only stay in a person's system for a day or two. Marijuana, meanwhile, can stay in your system for up to six weeks. So if your son or daughter snorted some crystal meth last weekend, the test wouldn't show it, but if they puffed on a joint over a month ago it might. Make sense?

    Here's an idea. Try talking to your kids and letting them know that you are not the Gestapo. Who knows, they may open up to you if they trust you. But if you think making them take a drug test to prove their innocence will do anything but lead to mistrust, you are only fooling yourself.

    -- Posted by mrfresh28 on Thu, Jan 31, 2008, at 2:16 PM
  • I know Im sorry, Ive been ill since nov of 07, Im sorry Mayor Rist and Chief Waters, I tend too ramble on and whem Im sick and don't write well,I just repeat what I see, so if I write kinda "RAW" I don't mean too, I just try to get the idea out for debate, it take my mind off my pain , so again

    Im sorry Mayor Rist and Chief Waters, we are luckly too have you both,

    -- Posted by Freedom on Thu, Jan 31, 2008, at 3:31 PM
  • Here I go again, smile

    ME1, we're on your team , we all want the same thing, but what I seen for the last 40 years is that the Road we have taken is on the wrong road, thats why we still have the problem, no matter what has been done in the past and currently the problem just gets worst. if we keep walking down this road, in 20 years, oh man, it will be all "dope" dope is "King", its out of control.

    So what do we Me1, drug test kids' been there done that. don't work,sometimes, maybe, My point would be, lets chance the law, so "We The People" can control it, Rather than some invisable?? person on an unknown street making money. it just seems too me the right thing to do, THEN BURN anyone selling dope, esp too kids, Im really mean crack done it hard. there's Marijuana and then theres Dope, and the Idaho Law, just don't read like it makes any since? at all, how's that law going to stop dope, I don't get it, Im missing something here, what are we really doing. and thats why parents want too test their kid, "which I agree with" for the parent info, so Im with you on that, its just this Crazy law with have, its nuts. why would the Government want to have a law that would put a disable 50 year old Man or Women in harms way just because they smoke pot too feel good, so they can eat and sleep and then force them to buy, what could be view as Meds for them from a drug dealer. what are we doing

    I love writing, I feel like homer simpson, maybe by spring I'll feel better, smile

    -- Posted by Freedom on Thu, Jan 31, 2008, at 4:18 PM
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