PROGRAM TO TARGET TEEN DRUG ABUSERS

Law Enforcement, Parents And School Officials Will Meet To Discuss Strategies.

HOWELL -- In light of a study that shows drug and alcohol use in
Livingston County is higher than the national averages, parents,
school officials and law enforcement agencies are coming together
this week to learn more about how to better help young people.

Community Response to Alcohol and Other Drug Use of Adolescents will
be presented on Aug. 16-18 by the Livingston Educational Service
Agency's Safe and Drug-Free Schools Consortium at the LESA offices
in Howell. The drug use statistics come from Western Michigan
University surveys conducted in three of the five Livingston County
school districts from 2001 to 2005.

The survey shows that, nationally, of the 12th-grade students taking
the test, 48 percent consumed alcohol in the previous month and,
locally, 54 percent reported doing so.

The national average of 12th-graders who admitted to having five
drinks in a row in the previous two weeks was 28 percent.

In Livingston County, this measure of binge drinking was reported in
35 percent of 12th grade students and 27 percent of 10th-graders.

Kris Nelson, a social worker in Livingston County schools dealing
with kids at risk for substance abuse, believes parents need to pay
more attention to what their children are doing. "There is an issue
with it in every community," said Nelson, a 44-year-old Brighton
mother of three teenage boys.

Community Intervention Inc. of Minnesota will outline intervention
and prevention ideas. "We'll be learning the most current
information about what kinds of substance abuse kids are doing,"
said Jo DelVero, Hartland Consolidated Schools student
assistance program coordinator.

She and Mary Beno, health education and safe and drug free schools
consultant for Livingston and Washtenaw counties, started the program.

"We'll learn new, creative and workable intervention strategies,"
DelVero said. "And we'll develop policies and strategies with
community agencies to work together."

In 2005, Livingston County emergency medical workers made 191 runs
for drug overdose calls. There were eight reported overdose deaths
in the county last year.

To sign up for the program, which costs $200 per entrant, call
Terese Steinaway at the LESA office (517) 546-5550.