San Dieguito Alliance For Drug Free Youth
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San Dieguito Alliance for Drug Free Youth

PO Box 2448
Del Mar, CA 92014
SDAlliance4@aol.com

Parents Should Know




The Curfew Law for minors (under 18) in the County and the City of San Diego is 10:00pm – 6:00am.

The only exceptions to the curfew law are if the minor is:

  • Accompanied by the minor's parent or guardian, or by a responsible adult

  • On an errand at the direction of the minor's parent or guardian, or the responsible adult, without any detour or stop

  • In a motor vehicle involved in interstate travel

  • Engaged in an employment activity, or going to or returning home from an employment activity, without any detour or stop

  • Involved in an emergency

  • On the sidewalk abutting the minor's residence

  • Attending an official school, religious, or other recreational activity supervised by adults and sponsored by the City of San Diego, a civic organization, or another similar entity that takes responsibility for the minor

  • Exercising First Amendment rights protected by the United States Constitution

  • Emancipated pursuant to law.

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Alcohol Prevention Ideas for Parents from FACE

  •  Download and print "Alcohol Prevention Ideas for Parents from FACE"
         [PDF 181KB]
    • Curfews work – enforce them.

    • Lock up your alcohol, count it, track it.

    • Love as a parent, not a friend.

    • Set rules – voice them, follow them.

    • Don't be swayed by what other parents are doing.

    • Never buy alcohol for kids because you think it's safer.

    • If you think your child is drinking, they probably are – address it now.

    • Limit alcohol at your own parties – kids are watching.

    • Never look the other way when alcohol is being used by underage youth.

    • Band together with other like-minded parents.

    • Face it – as a parent, you will be the bad guy sometimes.

    • Don't be afraid of losing your child's love, be afraid of losing them.

    • And no, not everyone is going on Spring Break with friends.

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    News You Can Use

    You should know your computer, radio, television, and even T-shirts are telling your kids it's okay to use alcohol, tobacco or other drugs. Did you know that more youth in San Diego County smoke marijuana than cigarettes? Nationally, nearly 40% of teens who first tried marijuana did so during May through August. The number of new underage drinkers and cigarette smokers also jumps during the summer months. Here are practical tips to help keep your children-make that ALL our youth-safe and healthy:

    • Keep computers in a busy part of the house, and not in bedrooms.


    • Approve and monitor any webpages your child creates. www.myspace.com is just one example of sites which allow youth to build their own pages, which often include drug references, crude language, and suggestive photos.

    • Keep an eye on the IM (instant messages) and spam. Teens are getting spam promoting the website www.chroniccandy.com, which sells marijuana flavored candy, T-shirts and other gear with their logo.

    • Keep up on the slang (we have a link on our website) so that you can veto T-shirts promoting drug use or underage drinking. (Did you know that "Wake 'n Bake" means to smoke marijuana first thing in the morning, not fresh cinnamon rolls?)

    • Complain to stores that sell pro-drug products. They simultaneously reduce the perception of harm, and make drug use look accepted in our community.

    • Listen to the radio stations your teen likes. Marijuana use in particular is trivialized and encouraged in music, DJ banter, and movies. When you hear a drug reference, use it as an opportunity to discuss the health and public safety problems caused by drugs.

    • Make it clear that you expect your child not to use alcohol, tobacco, marijuana or other drugs.

    • Say No to unsupervised sleepovers.

    • Contact the parents at a party your teen wants to attend. Verify that they plan to be home and ask about their house rules.

    • Make sure your child knows that too much…too fast can kill you. Binge drinking can result in death by alcohol poisoning, blackouts, and high-risk behavior including fights, sex, and drunk driving.

    • Remind your kids to never get in a car with someone who has been drinking or smoking marijuana.

    • Encourage a call to you for a ride if a situation gets out of control.

    • Give your teen a hug, especially when he or she arrives home.

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    Adolescent Habits Affect Adult Life

  •  Download and print "Adolescent Habits Affect Adult Life" [PDF 65KB]
  • Patterns of behavior and thought from adolescence can affect your teen's brain for life. That's the conclusion of recent research, which indicates the brain is not fully "wired" until about age 19.

    Duke University biological research psychologist Aaron White compares the 10- year-old brain to an overgrown garden with "hundreds of billions" of unruly neurons. These neurons make unnecessary or inappropriate connections. Much of the confusion takes place in the frontal lobe of the brain, the area that controls decision-making, planning, controlling emotions, and conveying ideas with language.

    As the growing teenager makes choices and form habits of thought, behavior and speech, pathways in the brain become established and unused neural pathways dwindle.

    This research could explain why some teens become adults with a sense of purpose and others don't. Or why some adults exercise while others don't. Teens are especially vulnerable to becoming dependent on tobacco, alcohol or other drugs, which affect the teen brain differently than the adult brain. If they don't use these substances by age 19, they probably won't as an adult. Teens who start using are more likely to continue or struggle with trying to quit throughout adulthood.

    The developing teen, aged 10 through 20, needs peers and adults who model good choices, and an environment that supports and expects safe and healthy choices. Because age 19 seems to be the "tipping point", active and responsive parenting should continue through high school into the early years of college. These influences and patterns deeply influence the brain, which may adopt them as "default settings" for the rest of life.

    Learn more about what's going on in the teen culture, and how to talk with your kids about drugs at www.theantidrug.com. You will find the newest information about Marijuana, drugged driving, Ecstasy, and warning signs of alcohol, tobacco and drug use.


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    PROMise To Keep It Safe

  •  Download and print "PROMise To Keep It Safe" [PDF 47KB]
  • As parents and teens plan for prom, graduation and other spring activities, San Dieguito Alliance for Drug Free Youth suggests that parents:

    • Say NO to unchaperoned parties, after prom parties in hotel rooms, coed sleepovers or any other event where alcohol could be served.
    • Know the address and telephone number of a party your teen wants to attend. Then contact the parents of the party giver to verify that they plan to be at home and visible. (Offering to send some food or soda is a good icebreaker.) Be sure alcohol/drugs will not be permitted.
    • Be certain your teen knows when he/she is supposed to be home, and that he/she must stay in one place, or call before changing party location. Set up a code word your teen can use when calling you to signal that he/she needs to be picked up now.
    • Don't bargain with youth by allowing them to drink as long as they promise not to drive. There are other problems with underage alcohol consumption besides drunk driving!


    • If your house is the site of the party…
    • Don't allow teens to leave and return.
    • Walk through your home often with more food and non-alcoholic drinks.
    • Ask other parents to help chaperone or provide food for the party.
    • Call parents of anyone under the influence immediately, and take away the keys.

    Alcohol is a depressant, slows reactions, dulls the brain, affects coordination, changes behavior and impairs judgment. Teens report that alcohol consumption is a major factor in date rape, suicide, fighting and vandalism. Too much..too fast..can kill you. Alcohol poisoning kills 4000 teens a year. Signs of alcohol poisoning can include vomiting, sweating, pale and clammy skin, slowed breathing, disorientation, and losing consciousness. The teen should NOT be given coffee, water or food, be put to bed to sleep it off, or be left alone. The teens should receive medical care immediately. There is no antidote, but doctors can pump the stomach, restart a failed heartbeat and monitor breathing.

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    'Drug Slang' That Parents Should Know

  •  Download and print "'Drug Slang' That Parents Should Know" [PDF 33KB]
  • Parents keep asking "what does '420' mean?" Do you know? The origins of 420 are disputed, but the meaning is clear-it is a code for marijuana use, seen on T-shirts, posters, heard on the radio, and even in the names of local smoke shops, paraphernalia stores formerly called head shops. Sometimes 420 is used as a time of day reference, and sometimes as a date. Parents should be especially aware that April 20th is the stoners' (marijuana users) holiday, so make an extra effort to keep tabs on your kids on 4/20 each year, when students may try to cut class.

    420 is just one example of current teen drug slang. Knowing the drug lingo is an important parenting strategy for intervening in destructive and unhealthy choice making by teens.

    Your teen's T-shirt can be a warning sign. One San Diego mom was suspicious about the phrase Wake & Bake on her son's new T-shirt. Her quick Google search informed her that Wake 'n Bake means to smoke marijuana first thing in the morning. She confiscated the T-shirt and complained to the store that sold it.

    Here are some other street terms you should know:

    • Cocaine: snow, dust, candy, devil's dandruff, Coke.
    • Marijuana: weed and herb, are now more common than pot, grass, or Mary Jane. A "date with Mary Jane" is a plan to use. Dank is sometimes used as an adjective-"a dank day." Blunt is marijuana inside a cigar, or marijuana rolled larger than a cigarette (called a joint). Baked, stoned, high all describe being under the influence of marijuana. Blast means to smoke marijuana or cocaine. Blasted or lit means under the influence of drugs.
    • Methamphetamine: crystal, crank, ice, and speed are most common, but there are more than 170 different street terms.
    • MDMA: ecstasy, E, X, XTC, Adam, rolls. Ecstasy used with Viagra is sexstasy.
    • Mushrooms (psilocybin): shrooms, caps.
    • Salvia Divinorum: Diviner's sage, Maria Pastora, Ska Maria Pastora, Sage of Seers. This powerful hallucinogen warrants special concern by parents because it can be bought legally.
    • Oxycontin: O's, Ox, 40's, 80's, hillybilly heroin, cotton, kicker.
    • Pharming: use of a pharmaceutical drug not prescribed to you, sometimes mixing pills, sometimes called beans. Watch for DXM in cough and cold medicines.
    • Vicodin: Vikes.
    • Zoinked: drugged to the point of uselessness.

    You can find a 'drug slang' list at www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/streetterms

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    Grad Night: A Letter to Senior Parents

  •  Download and print "A Letter to Senior Parents" [PDF 11KB]
  • Each year the senior class officers spend many hours planning safe and healthy activities for the senior class, especially during graduation week. Nevertheless, each year some seniors spend an evening in Tijuana during that week. Three years ago, several buses were rented to go to Tijuana, and three students were still arrested on the street.

    Given the present climate, it is not the best time for our sons and daughters to be going to Tijuana. Students may feel safe there, but Mexico is a foreign country with a different set of laws.

    According to U.S. law, you must be at least 18 years of age to go across the border without your parent. Border guards will check identification. Offenders will be given citations, and parents will be called. The legal drinking age in Mexico is 18 years. Tijuana is strict and will arrest individuals with fake identification.

    In Mexico, driving under the influence is a major violation of the law, and there are many DUI checkpoints. Police will make arrests for this and for drinking in public, being a public nuisance and disorderly behavior. Rape is a big problem in Tijuana, even for males. Date rape and designer drugs have contributed to the problem. If a person is caught carrying drugs, there is a minimum ten-year jail term.

    Mexican officials are not sympathetic to teens entering their country, getting drunk, and misbehaving. Ten to fifty U.S. citizens are arrested weekly, especially in the 18- to 20-year old range. They can be held for 72 hours without being charged. If arrested, a U.S. citizen only has the same rights as a Mexican citizen. He can call someone to arrange for bail. He can call the American Consulate, but only to make sure his rights are protected and to get help finding a lawyer.

    Please take the time to talk to your son or daughter about participating in safe and sober activities. Give a clear, consistent message about not drinking. As parents, we want our children to be safe and rested, able to enjoy all the planned events for graduation week, especially graduation and Grad Nite.

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    Today is April 20th

    It's 420 Time


    Every once and a while you will see the term "420" or hear it pronounced "four twenty".

    Do you know what it means?

    Should you care what it means?

    If you are a parent, teacher, business manager or anyone working with or responsible for others, you need to know about this term.

    The term 420 could denote a time of the day or a number someone is referencing, but if you live in the world of illegal drugs the term refers to the use of the drug marijuana. Think of 420 as a generic term for marijuana. Depending on how it is stated, 420 can have multiple meanings. Most of the time it refers to using the drug, as in "Do you want to four twenty after work today?"

    We see the term on clothing, skateboards, and notebooks and even on commercial beverages. Students will write the term on their notebooks, book covers, notes and even put up signs in their rooms.

    Rumors and stories abound as to how the term started. The most common rumor is that 420 was a California police code cops used when they'd spotted someone getting high and drug users adopted the word. Others think it was the number of chemicals found in marijuana or the number of uses for hemp cloth. Some think it has to do with Hitler's birthday, April 20th -- which is, not entirely coincidental, also the day that Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 13 people and themselves at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.

    The true story according to Steven Hager, editor of High Times, is "the term 420 originated at San Rafael High School in 1971 among a group of about a dozen pot-smoking wiseacres who called themselves the Waldos. The term 420 was shorthand for the time of day the group would meet at the campus statue of Louis Pasteur to smoke pot. "Waldo Steve,'' a member of the group who now owns a business in San Francisco, says the Waldos would salute each other in the school hallway and say, "420 Louis!'' The term was one of many invented by the group, but it was the one that caught on. "It was just a joke, but it came to mean all kinds of things, like 'Do you have any?' or 'Do I look stoned?'" Steve said. "Parents and teachers wouldn't know what we were talking about.'' The term took root, flourished and spread beyond San Rafael with the assistance of the Grateful Dead and their dedicated cohort of pot-smoking fans. The Waldos decided to assert their claim to the history of the term after decades of watching it spread, mutate and be appropriated by commercial interests.

    So on April 20th we will see tens of thousands, if not millions of people across the United States and around the world "mow the grass" which means these folks get baked, blitzed, paggered, blazed, obliterated, perved, smacked ... in other words, they get high as 4/20 is recognized by many as "National Smokeout Day."

    On message boards on the internet across the nation you will see invitations to others to gather together to smoke marijana or 420. Many local radio stations will be playing music glorifying marijuana use and emphasizing marijuana useage.

    Many mature believers will be taking the day off to spend celebrating and smoking out and teens across the country will be skipping school to party with their friends. Even elementary and middle school students who don't use drugs will write "420"on their hand or notebook just to be cool. There will be dozens of celebrations across the globe. Even the Reform of Marijuana Laws, NORML, will open their 2004 NORML Conference and Congressional Lobby Day saying, "We're Here. We Smoke. We Vote" in Washington, D.C.

    The use of marijuana by youth has been on a steady increase. More kids are trying marijuana at an earlier age. One out of eight middle school students use marijuana. If you are a concerned parent you should be looking for signs of drug interest or use of your child and their friends. If their friends are using it will be only a matter of time before your child will be influenced.

    In the work place marijuana is one of the leading cause of substance abuse related accidents. It is costing business billion of dollars a year. As an employer be aware of your employees possible drug interest. Educate your employees often on drug issues and let them know your company's drug policy.

    Frederick B Becker

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    Alcohol, Energy Drinks, and Youth: A Dangerous Mix
    (an excerpt)

    Marin Institute and Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation.


  •  Download and print "Alcohol, Energy Drinks, and Youth: A Dangerous Mix" [PDF 35KB]
  • Public health and safety officials have become alarmed by the newest entry into the world of alcoholic beverages. Alcoholic energy drinks are prepackaged beverages that contain not only alcohol but also caffeine and other stimulants.

    Earlier this year, 29 state attorneys general signed a letter to Anheuser-Busch expressing their concern about Spykes, an alcoholic energy drink packaged in colorful 2-ounce bottles with obvious appeal to youth. The objections of law enforcement officials as well as parents and leading public health organizations caused Anheuser-Busch to pull Spykes from the market. But the story does not end there. Many other alcoholic energy drinks are still on the market.

    Targeting Youth. To understand how alcoholic energy drinks are marketed, it is critical to examine the popularity of nonalcoholic energy drinks among youth. Teenagers and young adults are the core consumer group for these products. Thirty-one percent of 12- to 17-year-olds and 34 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds report regular consumption of energy drinks. Nonalcoholic energy drink producers promote youth consumption using “grassroots” level marketing strategies, as opposed to traditional channels (such as television, radio, magazine, and outdoor advertising). Companies are looking for “one-on-one relationships” gained through events, extreme sports sponsorships, Internet interactions, text messaging, and communication among users on Internet sites such as MySpace and Facebook.

    Alcoholic energy drink producers have built on the popularity of nonalcoholic energy drinks in two ways: 1) promoting the mixing of energy drink products with alcohol, and 2) marketing premixed alcoholic energy drinks. Efforts to encourage the mixing of alcohol with energy drinks serve as a stepping stone to building a separate beverage category of premixed alcoholic energy drinks.

    Miller Brewing Company and Anheuser-Busch, the two largest U.S. brewers, are the leading producers of this new alcoholic beverage category, with brands that include Sparks, Tilt, and Bud Extra. Their marketing tactics mirror those used for nonalcoholic energy drinks: “grassroots” consumer strategies; images and messages that promote their association with partying and other high energy activities; and containers that have sizes, shapes, and graphics similar to their nonalcoholic cousins.

    The similarities in containers create the potential for confusion among consumers, retailers, parents, law enforcement officers, and others regarding which products contain alcohol and which do not. Alcoholic energy drinks are also a cheap alternative to purchasing alcoholic beverages and energy drinks separately. Taken together, these strategies strongly suggest that alcohol companies are marketing alcoholic energy drinks to young people.

    Health Concerns. Health researchers agree that caffeine consumption can have adverse health consequences, particularly at high doses. Among the most common negative effects are increased anxiety, panic attacks, increased blood pressure, increased gastric acid, bowel irritability, and insomnia.

    The potential health risks associated with adding alcohol to energy drinks suggest serious cause for concern. Caffeine, a stimulant, masks the intoxicating effects of alcohol, which may lead to increased risk-taking. Young people are therefore particularly vulnerable to increased problems from ingesting these products, since they are more likely to take risks than adults and to suffer high rates of alcohol problems, including alcohol-related traffic accidents, violence, sexual assault, and suicide. The combination of a depressant - alcohol, and a stimulant - caffeine can have serious consequences over time to the developing body.

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    Internet Resources


    Alcoholics Anonymous - 619-265-8762
    Alateen-Alanon - 619-296-2666
    Narcotics Anonymous - 800-479-0062
    Marijuana Anonymous - 619-685-2808

    www.theantidrug.com
    www.freevibe.com
    www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/marijuana_myths_facts www.imdrugfree.com
    www.nida.nih.gov
    www.tobaccofreekids.com
    www.laantidroga.com (Spanish)
    www.madd.org
    www.casacolumbia.org
    www.health.org/reality
    www.cdc.gov/tobacco
    www.acde.org
    www.drugfree.org
    www.mediacampaign.org
    www.aha.org
    www.lungusa.org

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