April Coalition Newsletter

Tobacco 21+, 4/20 Cannabis Cards, Tobacco website and more!

10th graders talk: mental Health, Substance Use, Wellness and More. Thurs April 11 from 3:30-5pm at ESD 112 Conference Center.

Presentation by Clark County Public Health

Join the Prevent Coalition at its April 11 community event to learn about the most prevalent issues affecting the health of adolescents in Clark County.

A Clark County Public Health epidemiologist will present local findings from the 2018 Healthy Youth Survey. The anonymous survey is administered every two years to sixth-, eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders across the state. The presentation will primarily examine Clark County 10th grade use of vaping devices, marijuana, tobacco and alcohol, as well as rates of youth suicide ideation and attempts, depression, anxiety and bullying.

View the event invitation.

Click for the event calendar page.

Read the Columbian article.

LEGISLATION TO RAISE TOBACCO SALE AGE TO 21 PASSES LEGISLATURE

On March 27th the Washington State Legislature passed a bill to raise the sale age for tobacco and vapor products to 21 with a bipartisan Senate vote of 33-12. The House of Representatives passed the bill with a bipartisan vote of 66-30 on Feb. 20th.

Prevention coalitions across the state advocated and supported raising the age since introduced in 2015. This year coalitions in our region had youth trained on advocacy attend Prevention Policy Day in Olympia to educate legislators on why raising the age would be an effective prevention strategy.

Representatives from the southwest region testified in the House, Senate, met with Attorney General Bob Ferguson, multiple Senators, Representatives and more. All that hard work paid off!

Event Notice: Saturday April 27th, 2019 from 10-2pm.

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April 27th Drug Take Back

Free & Safe Disposal

Bring unused and expired medication including pills, liquids and inhalers for disposal to five Clark County sites, one Skamania site and two Klickitat sites. PeaceHealth Southwest Urgent Care & Kaiser Cascade Park will be the only sites accepting Sharps or syringes for disposal.

Locks Save Lives

To encourage locking up your prescription medications, we're giving away a free lock box to the first 200 qualified people at two of our Clark county locations: PeaceHealth SW Urgent Care (33rd & Main, Vancouver) and Battle Ground Police Department (507 SE 1st. St., Battle Ground). Take the survey to see if you qualify for a FREE lock box at bit.ly/LocksSaveLives.

Coalitions from the Southwest Region, medical partners, law enforcement partners and more helped develop the Locks Save Lives campaign, including the website, logo design, campaign messaging that is shared in newspapers across the region, local theaters, on stickers, promotional swag and more. Thank you all for your partnership!

Click here to download and print the Clark County event flyer.

Click here for the Klickitat and Skamania Counties flyer.

Click here for a full list of disposal sites, addresses and more.

Locks Save Lives. You can save a life by locking up your prescription meds. Take the survey and see if you qualify for a free lock box.

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Cannabis cards for distribution with retailers.

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"Secure Your Cannabis" 4/20 Pilot Launch

We've partnered with cannabis retailers, community coalitions, schools and more to develop a point of purchase campaign called Secure Your Cannabis urging adults and parents to keep their cannabis safely away from kids. We'll distribute reminder cards to all who purchase cannabis from select retailers with health messages, tips for talking to teens about cannabis and more.

Prevent is pilot launching the campaign at High End Market Place on April 20th or 4/20. Project representatives will gather feedback from customers before finalizing design and officially offering the cards as a resource to retailers across Washington early May.

Click to read the full special announcement.

Click to visit the web page.

Morgan Hutchinson, Owner, explained, "Through High End Market Place I've been working with Prevent Coalition for several years, and continue to be excited about being part of the conversation. All eyes are on us in this unfolding and highly influential new industry, and we want to make sure we are making the most responsible decisions for our business and the communities we are part of here in Vancouver." We're lucky to have Morgan's support and partnership!

Educator Resources for Vaping & Tobacco on Youth Now

"As school administrators, counselors and educators, you play an important role in a student’s life. That’s why we’ve developed a collection of research-based materials to use as tools to educate yourself as well as connect with youth and teens about vaping."

ESD 112 and Prevent Coalition announce new school resources for vaping and tobacco on Youth Now. ESD 112 put together resources for school administrators, counselors, educators, added content for parents, youth and more on vaping and tobacco use. Additionally there's prevention resources and news highlights.

Letters describing the climate of youth tobacco and vape use, resources for support, and the Youth Now school web page are being sent to every school in Washington State - 2,452 schools in total. The concerning rise in youth vaping prompted the Washington Department of Health and ESD 112 to respond.

Click to access the school resources.