a reality based approach to teens and drugs – Linked with Drug Policy Alliance.
Safety First, a project of the Drug Policy Alliance, provides resources for parents, educators and students who are interested in reality-based approaches to drug education that stress the health, safety and well-being of young people. (Homepage).
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Address: Safety First Project, 2233 Lombard Street, San Francisco, CA 94123, USA;
For Media: Drug Policy Alliance New Mexico, Jeanne Block, Drug Education Coordinator, 230 S. St. Francis Dr., Ste 8, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA;
Contact.
About: Safety First, a project of the Drug Policy Alliance, was launched in 1998 after the San Francisco Chronicle published a letter written by Dr. Marsha Rosenbaum to her son, Johnny. As he was about to start high school, she wanted to outline her concerns about alcohol and other drugs that he might encounter in high school and provide some realistic strategies on how to stay safe.
Following an overwhelming response to her letter, Dr. Marsha Rosenbaum wrote Safety First: A Reality-Based Approach to Teens, Drugs and Drug Education to provide parents with the tools needed to evaluate and discuss strategies for protecting their teens from drug abuse. In 2007 she authored the fourth edition of the text under a new title, Safety First: A Reality-Based Approach to Teens and Drugs. Since the original publication of the booklet, more than 225,000 copies have been distributed worldwide in English, Spanish, and Chinese. The booklet has also been translated into Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, Czech, Hebrew and Portuguese.
After five years of educating parents about drugs, educators began to ask if we had a Safety First approach that could be implemented in schools. This led to creation of the California Statewide Task Force for Effective Drug Education, co-chaired by former California state legislators, John Vasconcellos and Jackie Goldberg. The work of the task force culminated in the publication of the booklet, Beyond Zero Tolerance: A Reality-Based Approach to Drug Education and School Discipline. This resource, written by Task Force chair, Dr. Rodney Skager, offers a new model for honest, reality-based drug education with interactive learning, compassionate assistance and restorative practices in lieu of exclusionary punishment.
Building on these models of reality-based drug education, the Drug Policy Alliance New Mexico developed a statewide methamphetamine education project for teens … (full text about).