News & Trends – March 5, 2014

March 2014

Beyond Hollywood:
Heroin Headlines Report Teen Use Nationwide 

  Last summer’s headline news was the heroin-related death of Glee star Cory Monteith, best known for playing television’s clean-cut high school football star Finn Hudson. Last month’s headline was Philip Seymour Hoffman, also known to teens for his role as head gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee in the popular Hunger Games movie series. Yet beyond Hollywood, stories of heroin abuse and tragedy appear in communities nationwide. 

   According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. drug poisoning deaths involving heroin increased 45 percent from 2006 to 2010 — and the trend is especially dire for younger users ages 15 to 24.

   Heroin is much more powerful than it used to be and, according to drug enforcement experts, is not limited to the use of a needle and back-alley experiences that might come to mind. According to a recent Teen Vogue article, getting heroin is as easy as purchasing a pill, because that’s what heroin has become: a powder-filled capsule known as a button, designed to be broken open and snorted, that can be purchased for just $10.

    Experts say that many heroin users start with pain pills. Perhaps that is not surprising: The CDC 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System reports that 20.7 percent of students surveyed  had taken prescription drugs without a doctor’s prescription one or more times during their life. But pain pills are expensive—legally and on the black market—pushing those dependent on them to seek out a cheaper, more easily accessible alternative with a similar kind of high: heroin.

Read More…

Parent Outreach: 
Forward this Email!  

Principals, teachers and guidance counselors around the country regularly forward Connect with Kids News & Trends as part of regular parent communications from their school

and classroom. 

WebSource Clients:

Use the search feature to find these resources to support

drug abuse prevention. 

Gateway 

A five-part video about the link between drug experimentation and addiction, with discussion questions and lesson plans for the middle and high school classroom.

Prescription for Trouble 

A five-part video about prescription drug abuse  with a Family Viewing Guide for parent outreach events and home viewing

Good Kids, Bad Choices  

A five-part video with a Family Viewing Guide for parent outreach events and home viewing.

WebSource Webinar:

Log On. Learn More.

Put WebSource to work in your school! 

Join Connect with Kids for a brief online overview of WebSource video and print resources. 

Tuesday, March 25, 2014
4 p.m. EST

WebSource Online:
Student Behavior, Health & Wellness 

An annual site license provides access to hundreds of evidence-based real and relevant videos, lesson plans and discussion questions, grouped for elementary, middle and high school students and their families.  

Plus professional development resources.

Click below for a free five-day trial

         

    Parent Guides

     

         Ever wish children came with an instruction manual?  Connect with Kids new selection of Parent Guides, at just $2.95 each, can help!

Click here to select from topics including Homework Tips and Test-Taking Strategies, Common Core State Standards, Bullying and Cyberbullying, Nutrition and Fitness, Social Media and Internet Safety and Stress, Anxiety and Depression, to name a few. 

Questions about Connect with Kids Resources? 

Call or email Betty Pennington at 1-888-598-5437, ext. 145

www.connectwithkids.com

Posted in: