Uncategorized

Social Hosting on the Agenda

This Thursday is our monthly LCAT meeting and high on our agenda will be a discussion about a new Social Hosting Ordenance that the City will be taking up.   I have included here, a draft of an ordinance already in use in other cities in the state.  Please take some time to read it and then bring your feedback to the meeting this Thursday. In addition we will be discussion our Parents Who Host program and what are plans for the future are.   As always, I hope to see you this Thursday at 5:00PM at the Sports and Recreation Center

Ordinance to Stop the Sale of Synthetic Cannabis (Marijuana)

A recent law enforcement advisory indicates that  synthetic cannabinord products are becoming more accessible.

Law enforcement officials in many areas of the country are reporting increasing use of synthetic cannabinoid products by teens and young adults as these products are widely available. Often hyped as a legal alternative to marijuana, individuals subject to scheduled or random drug screening tests allegedly also have used synthetic cannabinoid products to avoid a positive test for cannabis and the resulting consequences. Many synthetic cannabinoid users also abuse marijuana.

See the full Advisory here.

In order to help control this situation and keep these products out of the hands of our youth, Paul Fisk has written this proposed Ordinance for the City of Lodi.   We would like your feedback and ultimately your support of this issue.  Please read the ordinance and then leave a comment below.

An Ordinance to amend the Code of the City of Lodi Chapter 253

County Wide Compliance Checks to Continue

Sheriff Richards has decided to continue compliance checks as long as a Federal CARD Grant is received.   Sheriff Richards faced with budget cuts and reduced staff had made the hard decision to discontinue  Alcohol Compliance Checks.  After several meetings with the County Supervisors and pleads made by several groups in the county, the Sheriff is able to continue the grant process and the checks if the grants come through. The Lodi Police Department has stated that their program will continue and is funded through 2012 and was in no way effected by the Sheriff's decision.  Together the Lodi Police Department and the Sheriff's Department can insure that all establishments in the Lodi area will maintain compliance with checking IDs and not selling to under-aged buyers.

Thanks for Attending

I will like to put out a big thanks to everyone that attended the Summit on Youth last night.  We had some really good discussions and a lot of great ideas for moving foreward.  If you missed the meeting last night, you will have another chance on Thursday November 18th at 5 PM at the Rec Center.  We will be continueing our discussions and putting some plans in place for the future.  Here are just a few of the ideas that came from last nights meeting:

  • We need to find a way to get parents more engauged and educated on how they can help create an environment for healthy choices.
  • Get sports organization to have rules regarding alcohol at youth related activities and celebrations.
  • Look into required parent or gardian participation in Every 15min before Prom.
  • All youth organizations will have more success with issues involving teens, drugs, and alcohol if we work together.
  • Research creating a Teen Drop in Center, utilizing the Rec Center more, and getting Mentors for teens.

Again these are just a few of the topics discussed.   We will work in the comming months to put more concrete plans in place.  Let's keep this discussion going!

Sheriff's Department Conciders Stopping Compliance Checks

It appears as though the Columbia County Sheriff, Dennis Richards, has decided to not re-apply for the CARD grant that funded Alcohol Compliance Checks in Columbia County.  This program has been very successful over the last few years for bringing attention to the issues invovled with teen access to alcohol.  The Lodi Police Department will continue their compliance program, but with out the help of the Sheriff's department, the outlying areas will go unaddressed. Tim Belleau has written a letter to the Sheriff from Columbia County Connects and I have written a letter from the Lodi Community action team.   We both encoraged the Sheriff to reconsider his decision and continue the program.   We now ask that you do the same and contact the Sheriff with your encoragement as well.

Dennis E. Richards, Sheriff
Law Enforcement Center
711 East Cook Street
Portage Wi 53901

Or email the Sheriff from the following Webpage http://www.co.columbia.wi.us/ColumbiaCounty/sheriff/SheriffEmail/tabid/1258/Default.aspx

Here is a copy of the Compliance Letter sent from LCAT.

Compliance checks are done on a regular basis to insure that establishments that sell alcohol comply with the laws requireing verification of ID.  The Checks are partialy or full funded by grants.  The Lodi Police Department is on a seperate grant from the Sheriff's department.  The Lodi Police Department is fully committed to continuing this program.

Study: Alcohol 'most harmful drug,' followed by crack and heroin

London, England (CNN) -- Alcohol ranks "most harmful" among a list of 20 drugs -- beating out crack and heroin -- according to study results released by a British medical journal. A panel of experts weighed the physical, psychological and social problems caused by the drugs and determined that alcohol was the most harmful overall, according to an article on the study released by The Lancet Sunday.

Read the full story at CNN.

The Parent Pledge Registry for 2010 is Live

The 2010 Parent Pledge Registry is live at www.lodiaction.org. If you signed a pledge you should have received notification with instructions on how to log in. If not, feel free to contact Steven Ricks at sricks@mac.com. We have just over 80 kids who are covered by the parent pledge this year and the numbers continue to grow. Remember that there is still time to sign up and invite your friends and neighbors. You can get a copy of the pledge form here -http://projectartistry.com/lodiaction/parent-pledge/

Signing up for the pledge automatically adds you to our mailing list. If you would like to be removed, you can go here - http://projectartistry.com/lodiaction/subscribe/

September Meeting Minutes

The main focus of the September meeting was to set the plan for the Lodi Summit on Healthy Youth. A new date was needed due to the final Lodi home football game being on the same date as October 21st.   The grope decided it was best to move the summit.   The best date found is Monday November 1st.

We have tentatively scheduled the Rec Center for that date for 6-8pm.

The purpose of the summit will be to Provide the information pertaining to drug and alcohol use statistics from the 2009 Choices Survey.  We will use this information to re-enforce the good that is going on, as well as, highlight the areas that need to be addressed.  Our hope is that the result of this meeting is to create a coalition of groups to work towards creating a healthy environment for the teens in Lodi.   We see this as a first step and just getting the information out.   We expect a follow up meeting to discuss an action plan.

Steven will follow up with the school district to get permission to use the Lodi specific data at the meeting.   Steven and Curt will meet on Wednesday September 29th to set the agenda for the summit.

Patrick will work with the Rec Center to set up the facilities and have them provide Coffee and water.   We will get cookies or another light snake to have at the meeting.

Steven will write an invitation to be provided to each of the groups by next Friday October 1st.

The following groups will be contacted by the responsible party with the invitation.   We will also follow up with a personal phone call.

Church Youth Group Leaders - Steven Optimist Club - Steven Rotary Club - Patrick Scouting Organizations - Karen Home Schools - Karen Youth Basketball - Steven Youth Baseball - Dave Youth Football - Dave Four H - Dave FFA - Dave Karate America - Steven YMCA - Karen School Board and Administration - Dave LSRC - Patrick Friends of Scenic Lodi Valley - Karen Lodi Enterprise - Steven

At our last meeting we discussed providing some sort of trinket for the youth groups to hand out.  Kristina found us a great deal on water bottles and we can get 500 for $375.00.  With a logo and slogan printed on them.  I suggest we move forward with this plan.

Lodi Youth Summit October 21st 6-8 PM

After this post and email went out, I learned that the 21st is the last home game for Lodi with special events planned around it. Since this meeting is so important, we will change the night of our summit. Once a date is decided we will repost.

This October the Lodi Community Action Team will be holding a Youth Summit for all groups in the Lodi area that work with and for Teens. We will be presenting the key information from the 2009 Choices Survey conducted in Columbia county and the Lodi Area. The idea is to make sure that this important information is available and understood by the groups that need it the most. Our hope is that by the end of the Summit there will be an understanding of both what is going well and what are the true issues our teens face in the Lodi area. With the understand we also hope to facilitate a coalition of groups that will work together to strengthen our teens and provide then with more knowledge of healthy choices.

If you know of a group that should attend or are interesting in attending yourself, please contact Steven Ricks for more information.

sricks@mac.com 608-566-5614

LCAT is Moving!

That's right, LCAT has formed a new partnership with the Lodi Sports and Recreation Center.  Our meetings will now be held every third Thursday of the month at the Lodi Sports and Recreation Center (LSRC) from 5-6 PM starting in September.   If you have not attended a Community Action Team Meeting, this would be a great time for you to come by and see what's happening.   After the meeting be sure to check out the rest of the facilities.

This is just a start, so look for more to come from this LCAT and LSRC partnership!

Know! Times of Transition Increase Risk

There are specific times in a child’s life that place him or her at increased risk for using alcohol, tobacco and other drugs…heading back to school is one of them. If your child is entering middle school, high school or moving to a new school, you will need to be especially vigilant. But even a change in grade level, teachers, coaches or friends may be cause enough for added stress that can also lead to experimentation with alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. Read More ->

This artical is from Know!

Know! is a collaborative effort of Drug-Free Action Alliance and The United Way of Central Ohio. Know! is proud to report a continuously growing number of parents, prevention agencies, community leaders, coalitions, businesses and educators who share the goal of preventing and reducing the use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.

New report says 12 year olds abusing inhalants

CNN reports on a new national survey from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration that finds that 12 year olds are using inhalants more than marijuana, hallucinogens and cocaine combined.  Read the full artical at http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/03/11/inhalant.abuse/index.html?eref=rss_us&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_us+%28RSS%3A+U.S.%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher