Substance use prevention has been around for a long time. From the Just Say No campaign of the 80s to the OC Sheriff’s Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program that provides education to school age youth on the dangers of drugs. What we have learned is that...
There has been an alarming rise in the cases of injuries and deaths associated with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, which has become part of a growing public health crisis in our community and across the nation. Deaths from overdoses reached a staggering 107,622 in...
The Wellness & Prevention Coalition joined 645 local coalitions across the nation as a federally funded Drug-Free Communities (DFC) coalition through the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). The Wellness & Prevention Coalition was a...
By Amy Neville In the last several years, fentanyl has been infiltrating the illicit drug market. For most of us who don’t use drugs recreationally, this seems like a benign fact. For parents with adolescents, the danger may still seem like a very distant...
For the first time since the closures in 2020, San Clemente High School’s Wellness & Prevention Coalition (WPC) had the opportunity to attend CADCA’s National Leadership Forum in National Harbor, Maryland. With funding from the Centers for Disease Control Drug...
Have you lost a loved one to a drug or illicit substance overdose? You are not alone. Preliminary data released by the CDC show that drug overdose deaths reached a record high of 93,331 in 2020. While these estimates are not final, this number is 20,000 deaths higher...
A recent study published in the Journal of American Public Health reports that 67.7% of youth surveyed reported decreasing or quitting e-cigarette use during the COVID-19 pandemic. This promising trend comes only two years after the US Surgeon General declared youth...
By Gina Sisca Hazlett When Susan Parmelee asked me to write a guest Wellness & Prevention column the answer was an easy yes. The Wellness & Prevention Coalition was established to bring resources together that support healthy youth and families in South...
By Amarii Sandoval, Wellness & Prevention Coalition Youth Leadership Member In February of this year I had the opportunity to attend the 29th Annual National Leadership Forum led by the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA). The Forum was made up of...
As we transition from Thanksgiving into the winter holidays, I find myself both excited and a little anxious as in the past I was known in my family for being so worried about the perfect Christmas that I often turned into the Grinch. Now, a few years older and wiser,...