Welcome back, everyone! All of us at the Educator hope your summer was relaxing, invigorating, and—most of all—that it felt unusually long. Here’s to a new school year filled with promise and possibilities!

This issue of the Educator is packed with news about some very significant program updates. But first, we invite you to check out everything you ever wanted to know about heroin and opioids from contributing author and Project ALERT trainer, Dr. Pamela Luna. We feel this “opiate primer” is full of excellent information and a must-read for those implementing Project ALERT at their schools and organizations. Thanks, Pam!

And with heroin still buzzing on the 24-hour news cycle, hot off the presses is Project ALERT’s newest supplemental guide, Heroin and Other Opiates: Information and Facts for Educators and Youth. We recommend some focused discussion on this rising epidemic as time allows.

Next, we've revamped our Project ALERT web site! We've updated links and pages, and added many new features and resources. See details below, and check it all out at projectalert.com.

Finally, we’re having a video contest! Want more details on how your school can participate and have their video attain “official Project ALERT status”? See the announcement below.

Enjoy this issue of the Educator! As always, we encourage your feedback on all of our recently updated materials. Thank you!

 

 

 

 

The Project ALERT team has been working hard this summer to provide you with an enhanced web site experience! Here are some highlights.

Most notable is our new FAQ, which provides answers to a myriad of questions about the online training modules and program implementation.

A new Getting Started page is now available for those new to our web site and training modules. 

No more clicking on 14 separate files!  The full Project ALERT implementation manual—all 373 pages—is now available for download in one fell swoop.

Core Lesson 4, as well as other places throughout the manual where prevalence of use data is noted, has been updated.  These data, released yearly from the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future study, will now be updated in the Project ALERT manual on an annual basis, so you can be sure that you’re disseminating the most current use data to your students.

We’ve updated some old links and added new ones on our Resources and Links pages. We think you’ll find the added teaching tools very useful.

Our new iTunes Podcast will be helpful for instructors that don't have Internet access in the classroom. Now you can display lesson videos while offline. See complete instructions here.

Finally, in response to the current opiate epidemic, please check out the newest addition to our series of supplemental guides, Heroin and Other Opioids: Information and Facts for Educators and Youth.  We hope you will set aside a few minutes to review some important facts and statistics about this issue with your students.  As with our recently-published supplements on marijuana and e-cigarettes, we kept the reading level appropriate for middle schoolers, making the guide suitable to use as a hand-out.

 

 

According to the University of Michigan’s annual Monitoring the Future study, the majority of high school seniors do not think occasional marijuana smoking is harmful, with only 31.9 percent saying that regular use puts the user at great risk compared to 78.6 percent in 1991.

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, disapproval of regularly smoking marijuana remains relatively high at 70.7 percent among 12^th graders, although this rate has gradually declined from a high of 90.1 percent in 1992.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For 8th graders, alcohol is still the substance of choice, with e-cigarettes running a close second and surpassing traditional cigarette use by nearly 3 times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Read the full report here.

 

 

 

Project ALERT is sponsoring a contest to update the videos from Lesson 5, Lindsey’s Choice, and we’re providing an opportunity for students and their teachers to partner with us in this effort. This fall we’ll be sending around information and guidelines for how Project ALERT schools can get involved.  

 

Look for a special edition of the Educator this October to learn more.