The family of the late Dr. Liz Karnes and PRIDE-Omaha, Inc. are proud to announce that the Liz Karnes Memorial Scholarships for Drug-Free Youth will again be offered to high school seniors this school year.

High school seniors from Douglas and Sarpy Counties, who have lived, modeled, and promoted a drug-free lifestyle, are eligible to apply for these $1,000 college scholarships.

Liz’s husband, former U.S. Senator David Karnes, and their four daughters established this scholarship fund last year. PRIDE-Omaha, Inc. is assisting in the scholarship application and administration process.

Completed applications must be postmarked or hand delivered to PRIDE-Omaha, Inc. no later than 4:00 p.m. on February 11, 2005. Scholarship recipients will be notified of their award through their high schools no later than April 1, 2005.

On September 5, 2004, Beatrice native Samantha Spady, age 19, died at Colorado State University.

Two weeks later, 18-year-old Lynn Gordon Bailey, Jr. died at the University of Colorado. On September 30, Adam Hammontree, 19, died at the University of Oklahoma. A 20-year-old student, Bradley Barrett Kemp, was found dead at the University of Arkansas.

All these deaths were alcohol-related. The deaths are just the “tip of the iceberg,” states Henry Wechsler, a Harvard University researcher who studies campus drinking. A recent study by Bloomsberg University found that 1,400 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 will die from alcohol-related causes each year in America.

“We are losing college students to alcohol-related deaths at a rate approaching the monthly losses of U.S. servicemen during the Vietnam conflict,” states the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism on its website: www.collegedrinking prevention.gov/students/alcoholfacts.

The study also found that every year:

500,000 college students are injured while under the influence of alcohol.

More than 600,000 students are assaulted by another student who has been drinking.

More than 70,000 students are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape.

Alcohol factors in at least 85% of all college rapes.

Thirty-five percent of all college academic failures are attributed to alcohol.

2.1 million students drove a car while under the influence of alcohol.

Henry Wechsler led a study at the Harvard School of Public Health that found over half of all campus crime is alcohol-related. The study found that 44% of U.S. college students engaged in binge drinking in the two weeks before the survey. Fifty-one percent of men in the survey drank five or more drinks in a row. Forty percent of women drank four or more drinks in a row. Almost half of the binge drinkers, which represents one in four students, reported frequent binge-drinking episodes. "Frequent" is defined as three or more times in a two-week period.

The study found a strong connection between heavy drinking by college students, low-price promotions of alcohol, and high-volume sales of cases and kegs. “It is cheaper for a student to get drunk than to go to a movie,” states Wechsler. Some schools enforce alcohol rules, while others wink at them.

The Princeton Review has released its annual Top Ten Party Schools list. The 2005 list features the State University of New York at Albany as the number one party college. “The bars are the place to be,” according to the Review, “even for underclassmen. The location is so crucial to social life that, by junior year, many students move downtown by the bars.”

The number two school is Washington and Lee University. At the number three school, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the Review notes, “State Street compares to Bourbon Street on weekend nights.”

The number four school is West Virginia University. “There’s a party every night at this school,” states one WVU student in the report.

Ohio University at Athens is the number five school. “We get the work done on the weekdays so we can party hard on the weekends,” says one student.

The number six school is Florida State University. Number seven is the University of Texas at Austin. At the number eight school, the University of Georgia at Athens, the Review reports, “Before football games, the university suspends open container laws and turns Athens into Mardi Gras.”

PRIDE-Omaha, Inc. has a video resource for parents of college-age young people or college-bound high school seniors called “Spin the Bottle.” This 45-minute video focuses on the dangers of college drinking. It also explains the techniques alcohol marketers use to link their products to the gender identities of young men and women.

It offers a critique of the role contemporary popular culture plays in glamorizing underage drinking, heavy drinking, and high-risk behaviors.

"The bravest are surely those

who have the clearest vision

of what is before them,

glory and danger alike,

and yet notwithstanding,

go over to meet it."

As college drinking continues to kill and harm students, parents and health advocates are putting more pressure on the schools themselves. Some schools are attempting different ways to address the problem.

Ohio State University announced last November that, beginning this year, there will be no alcohol advertisements during local broadcasts of Ohio State University games. The ban includes all publications and broadcasts of football and basketball games. Last year, OSU sold advertising rights totaling $1.4 million.

After a University of Kentucky football player died in an alcohol-related car crash in 1998, the school announced that it would revoke the scholarship of anyone arrested for any drinking offense. A strong education effort with athletes began.

“What happened was that when we took away the scholarships, there were many schools, even in our own conference, who were more than willing to take those kids in,” said Keith Webster, the school’s head athletic trainer. “So we changed the policy to a one-year suspension.”

Some schools are using programs sponsored by the alcohol industry, including “Speak Up!” Not surprisingly, surveys are showing little change at these universities.

~ Philadelphia Inquirer, 4/2/04

~ Cincinnati Post, 11/26/03

A distiller’s recent decision to raise prices has slowed sales. This fact provides further statistical support for preventionists’ arguments that alcohol price increases help prevent alcohol use and alcohol problems.

~ Wall Street Journal, 7/16/04

While the major television networks continue to limit the glorification of drug use, cable television is allowing drugs to be glamorized and normalized.

On a recent HBO episode of the comedy “Entourage,” the young quartet laments the sudden absence of good “weed.” The group later meets with a tough, middle-aged producer who melts when they get him stoned.

Cocaine blows freely on “The Sopranos.” Alcohol and other drugs play roles on “Deadwood” and “Six Feet Under.” On the latter show last July, Claire stated, “I’m so much happier when I’m high.” On “Nip/Tuck” in August, after an operation that went bad, one of the surgeons bought some pot and got blasted. On “Huff,” actor Oliver Platt plays a pot-smoking, coke-snorting lawyer.

One reason the public has not fought back against the glamorization of drugs on cable television is that people don’t know where to send complaints.

If you would like to protest the references to drugs on cable television, please call, write, or email the particular cable network company. We have listed contact information for HBO, Showtime, and MTV. If you view a program on a different cable network, please write or e-mail your cable provider and they will forward the letter to the cable network company responsible for the programming.

Major Omaha area cable providers are listed below.

The number of adolescents, ages 12 to 17, admitted to substance abuse treatment programs increased 65% between 1992 and 2002, states a report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

The number of adolescent treatment admissions for primary marijuana treatment increased 350%.

~ www.oas.samhsa.gov

Some area convenience stores and gas stations in Omaha are now selling a product called the “Love Rose” or the “Tube Rose.” The problem with the “Love Rose” is that it can be used as a crack pipe.

The glass tubes are about four inches long and about as wide as a ballpoint pen. Inside the tube is a tiny long-stemmed plastic or paper rose. Both ends of the tube are closed with either removable tin foil or small corks. Stores say that it is meant to be a cute, chintzy gift.

Several communities across the country have challenged the sale of the “Love Rose” because it can also be used as a crack pipe. Crack addicts take off the cork or foil ends, stuff a small piece of copper scouring pad in the tube and use it to snort crack cocaine.

Parents and concerned citizens in Tacoma, WA, Rockford, IL, St. Petersburg, FL, and Nashville, TN, among others, have called for a stop to the sales.

In some cases, the “Love Rose” already falls under existing drug paraphernalia laws. Most laws, however, state that the seller has to know that the item is being used for illicit purposes. In Nashville, police conducted an undercover operation. Plainclothes officers went into stores and simply asked specifically for “the crack pipe.” Officers visited 40 stores and arrested 23 people.

Activists in other cities have had some success after asking stores to stop selling the item.

Cigar wrappers are being marketed as flavored tobacco paper for people who like to roll their own cigars.

As Lowell, Massachusetts police vice officer Sgt. James Trudel states, “I don’t know anyone who rolls their own cigars.” Police say the 3 x 5-inch sheets of tobacco paper are actually being used to roll marijuana-filled cigars known as “blunts.”

For several years, marijuana smokers have opened regular cigars, emptied out the tobacco, replaced it with marijuana and resealed them. The re-used cigar shells hold more marijuana than a typical hand-rolled joint, look legal, and burn slower. These cigars have been called “blunts” because the Phillies Blunt brand of cigars seems to make some of the best blunts. Users state that Phillies Blunt shells are milder and taste smoother than other brands.

The new tobacco paper wrappers simplify the whole process. They come in 13 flavors, including sour apple, chocolate, berries, watermelon, black cherry, and cognac. Children are attracted to flavored products, especially when used in drugs.

Although marijuana is illegal, rolling papers are not illegal for those over 18. In Omaha, Ralston, and Papillion, however, these tobacco products must be placed out of the reach of children.

Over 900 people of all ages attended the Red Ribbon Drug Prevention Walk & Rally at Heartland of America Park on September 26, 2004. The event featured a “Walk Against Drugs” and rally filled with music, fun, games, drug-free pledges, and remarks from Omaha Police Chief Thomas Warren and Senator Don Preister. The event kicked off our community’s month-long drug prevention campaign.

Outstanding Job!

St. John Vianney

St. Robert Bellarmine

St. Stephen the Martyr

St. Wenceslaus

for providing terrific games at the Red Ribbon Walk and Rally.

A new study suggests that teen girls are more likely to start smoking if their favorite celebrity is shown smoking in movies, Reuters reported June 29.

The University of California at San Diego studied 3,104 girls between the ages of 12 and 15. They found that girls whose favorite celebrity had smoked in at least two recent movies were nearly twice as likely to start smoking in the next three years as girls whose favorite movie stars did not smoke in films.

~ American Journal of Public Health, July 2004

The “Do Something” grants are back. Ten $500 grants are awarded each spring and fall to individuals or groups who have a good idea to improve their community.

The grants are meant to turn good ideas into action. The motto of the group is, “See it. Believe it. Build it. Do it. Reflect.”

Applicants are urged to submit creative proposals for solving local problems. The deadline for applications for next spring’s awards is December 10, 2004.

On August 24, 2004, the Omaha City Council failed to advance an ordinance that would ban secondhand smoke in all workplaces. A second proposal to allow several exemptions to the ban also failed to advance.

Supporters of clean indoor air state that they will continue to educate the community on the dangers of even minimal exposure to secondhand smoke.

On April 3, 2005, thousands of youth in every state and around the world will stand up and speak out to inform peers and to challenge Big Tobacco.

Sixteen-year old Christina Martucci has been charged with vehicular homicide. She was driving with a “significant amount” of marijuana in her blood on the first day of school this year at Liberty High School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Her car veered into the path of an oncoming school bus. The crash killed a 16-year-old passenger and seriously injured two others.

Bill Blake, a Northampton County assistant district attorney, states that blood tests showed Martucci had more than two times the minimum level of marijuana in her blood needed to prosecute for driving under the influence.

~ Morning Call, 10/9/04

The number of marijuana-related emergency room visits for children ages 12 to 17 has more than tripled since 1994.

In 2001, the latest year for which figures are available, 7,535 admissions were reported, according to federal health officials.

“The kids we see are not only smoking stronger stuff at a younger age but their pattern of use might be three to six blunts . . . just for themselves in a day," states Michael Dennis, a research psychologist in Bloomington, Illinois. Each blunt is the equivalent of three or four joints.

The sixth annual poll from the Uhlich Children’s Advantage Network reports that America’s teens give parents and other adults very low marks when it comes to preventing young people from drinking or using tobacco or other drugs.

Asked to grade adults’ performance on a variety of issues, over 35% of young people gave “D’s” and “F’s” to adults in the following categories: “stopping young people from smoking,” “stopping young people from using drugs,” “stopping young people from using alcohol,” and “getting rid of gangs.”

The teens gave adults a “B” in providing a quality education for young people, a “B-” in fighting the war on terrorism, a “C+” in how well they discipline children, and a “C” in stopping teens from running away.

For the sixth straight year, teens gave the lowest grade to adults in stopping young people from drinking.

“Communities simply must respond to these concerns and perceptions,” states PRIDE-Omaha, Inc. Executive Director, Susie Dugan. “Parents, schools, businesses, law enforcement, policy makers, and the public need to work harder at banding together to stop teen drinking, smoking, and use of other drugs.”

Fifty-six percent of teens said that television has the most impact on their opinions about world, national, and local events. Newspapers ranked a distant second at 12% and the Internet third at 9%. As for individuals, 41% of teens turn to parents and family members first for perspectives on the news.