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Please see below email from Dolores Ragsdale announcing the next P4P community meeting which continues the dialogue on protecting our children from drugs and alcohol. The meeting on March 6th was a good first step. Please email me if you have any questions at BMEichinger@aol.com. I hope to see you all on April 29th.
Hello!
The next community meeting will be held at the Town’s Teen Center at Lakeside Park. We will meet at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 29th.
The purpose of this meeting is to continue the dialogue about the challenges facing our children and teens that was initiated at the Pawling Central School District’s community forum last month.
Please take this opportunity to talk to representatives from the Town and Village, the School District and others. We will also have a look at the newly renovated Teen Center.
As you may already know, Progress4Pawling meetings are held on the last Thursday of every month at 7:00 p.m. The topics and speakers vary, but our mission is to build communication, coordination and cooperation among community members. Along the way, we hope to encourage and support the development of our assets, which will provide children with the tools they need to build brighter futures.
Thanks,
Dolores Ragsdale
Executive Director
Pawling Community Services, Inc.
March 29 & 30, 2010
From ABC News – Diane Sawyer
The New Face of Heroin – See below Video Links from ABC News March 29 & 30, 2010. Also, see News Story Post after Video Links. Copy and paste these links into your browser.
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/face-heroin-10235268
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/heroin-heartland-10245066
Heroin Use In Suburbs On The Rise
Suburban Teens Are Getting Addicted, Overdosing And Dying
By SHARYN ALFONSI and HANNA SIEGEL
March 29, 2010—
It’s 7 a.m. and we’re on an undercover surveillance operation with the Drug Enforcement Agency.
At a bus stop 35 miles outside of New York City, drug dealers from the city are dropping off heroin that will be sold in the suburbs later that day.
These are not the kinds of communities you’d imagine having drug issues. But the rolling hills and picturesque houses betray a rising problem. In suburbs like this across the country, heroin use is skyrocketing and teenagers are dying.
“The interesting part too is when you start going to the schools and school events. You go back towards the bleachers, areas, you used to find little empty bags of marijuana, now you are actually finding the glassine stamps on the ground,” said DEA Agent Bradley Cheek. “Which means these kids have escalated from marijuana to heroin.”
The Ones You’d Least Expect
Honor students and athletes, some not even old enough to drive, are overdosing on heroin.
Jeffrey Veatch’s son Justin overdosed and died from his heroin addiction.
“The first reaction parents have — ‘I would never let my kids do this, this would never happen in my house,’” he says. “But we’ve learned a lot since then about substances and what’s available.”
“The signs weren’t overt. They weren’t always there and as parents you always look to the bright side and want to be optimistic that everything’s going to be fine.”
The Bigger Picture
The explosion of heroin in suburban America isn’t by accident. Rather, it is the plan of drug lords from Mexico and Columbia, who strategically market the drug to middle America with new, sophisticated techniques.
Packets of heroin are now stamped with popular brand names like Chevrolet or Prada, or marketed using blockbuster movies aimed at young people, like the Twilight series.
“Those drug traffickers were marketing that Heroin directly towards teenagers,” says John Gilbride of the DEA in New York.
Dealers even give it away for free in the suburbs at first. Once the kids are hooked, they sell it to them, dirt cheap.
In fact, kids can buy a small bag of heroin for as little as $5. It’s cheaper than movie tickets or a six pack of beer.
And this stuff is more potent than any pill.
“I was paying $60 a pill for oxycontin,” said one girl. “Heroin was a lot cheaper and the effects were a lot stronger.”
Stories From Users
Our New York affiliate, WABC, spoke to former heroin users at a rehab center.
“It’s euphoric,” said one patient. “It’s unexplainable.”
They start by snorting it.
“Whenever you’re having a bad day it makes you feel better,” said another. “If bad things were to happen to you that would hurt you…you don’t really care about it.”
“You’ll never get that same rush you got the first time you did it. That really warm sensation,” said another patient. “It’s unexplainable…you keep chasing it.”
That chase is what leads many to start injecting the drug.
We met “Jake” and “Katie,” two young users with similar stories.
“[I'm] definitely from the suburbs, pool in my backyard,” says Katie, “A nice big house, lots of brothers and sisters, big family, you know went to a good school.”
She says she first tried heroin for fun and instantly became addicted.
It’s not surprising. Today’s heroin isn’t just cheaper, it’s stronger. In the 70s, most heroin was about 3 percent pure. Today, it’s upwards of 60 percent. And the more potent it is, the more deadly.
“Every day you shoot up, you could overdose,” said Dr. Constantine Ioannou, vice chairman ofpsychiatry at Nassau University in East Meadow, N.Y.
We spoke to DEA agents across the country.
In Ohio, there were more heroin overdose deaths than deaths on the highway this year.
In the suburbs of Denver, Salt Lake City, even rural Wisconsin, heroin has taken its hold.
Charlotte, N.C., has seen a five-fold increase in heroin overdoses and death.
Back at the bus stop, we watch teens walk away with their fix for the day.
“I guess I’m surprised this is happening in broad daylight,” said Cheek. “It’s come out from the shadows. People need to realize it’s not confined to the alleyways and dark, dingy rooms, the heroin dens.
It’s here.
DUTCHESS COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
Poughkeepsie, New York
PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
Contact: Detective James Haire, Detective Thomas Cuddeback or
Detective Robert L. Harpp Jr.
845-486-3800
The Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest of Duane E. DuBois of Lakeville Connecticut. DuBois was arrested as a result of a continuing investigation of Burglaries in Dutchess County, Columbia County and the State of Connecticut. Dubois was charged with Burglary in the Second Degree and Grand Larceny in the Fourth Degree (Felonies) and was arraigned before the Town of Northeast Justice and remanded to the Dutchess County Jail on $20,000 cash/$40,000 bond; and is to appear in the Town of Northeast Court on March 29th, 2010 @ 10am for a preliminary hearing.
As a result of the arrest, members of the Connecticut State Police assisted by members of the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office Detective Division executed a search warrant at the Dubois residence in the State of Connecticut where stolen property was recovered.
Because of the continuing investigation, no further information can be released.
Anyone with information regarding Duane DuBois is asked to contact the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office @ 845-486-3800 and ask to speak to Detective James Haire, Detective Thomas Cuddeback or Robert L. Harpp Jr.
PINE PLAINS — Call it a competition. Call it an awareness project. Call it a bit of both. One thing is for sure: Pine Plains’ “Battle of the Belts” competitions are school-wide events.
Battle of the Belts is part of Sean’s Run, an annual event started nine years ago to increase awareness of the problems related to underage drinking and impaired driving. Sean’s Run, a 5K run/walk, is held in conjunction with a one-mile youth race, a tribute to victims and survivors of accidents involving impaired drivers and a prevention education expo.
Battle of the Belts consists of four-person teams duking it out to see who can strap on a seat-belt the fastest. Each of the four team members has to strap themselves into all four seats in the front and back of a vehicle and the teams can’t rotate to the next seat until all members have buckled in.
It’s a competition that’s a lot of fun, but also points out how quick and easy it is to buckle your seat belt. Auto accidents are the number one killer of teenagers, the Sean’s Run Web site explains, and two-thirds of teens who perish in car wrecks were not wearing seat belts.
Last Tuesday and Wednesday, the Pine Plains chapter of SADD (Students Against Drunk Driving) held qualifying trials for the main event, to be held on the same day as Sean’s Run in Chatham on April 25. The top middle school and high school teams would qualify for the Chatham event, which is touted as the sports’ “national championships.”
Participation in the event at Pine Plains has been consistently high during the last four years that SADD has held the competition, explained the chapter’s president, senior Erin Dorozynski. This year nine high school teams and 24 middle schools took to the parking lot in front of the Stissing Mountain building, everyone looking to out-buckle the competition.
SADD has about 20 active members in grades 9 through 12, Dorozynski said. They hold a variety of events throughout the year, including, most recently, a carnival beach party for the third, fourth and fifth graders from Seymour Smith and Cold Spring Elementary.
The school group even has an operating budget of sorts thanks to a $500 grant from First Niagra Bank. It allows SADD to pay for expenses related to its activities, such as registration fees for Sean’s Run. Last year 32 of Pine Plains’ finest went to Chatham, and hopefully the real message got and continues to get across to the school.
“It’s not just a competition,” Dorozynski repeated. “It’s to prove a point that the split second it takes to buckle a seat belt could make a difference.”
Students at Stissing Mountain Middle/High School have certainly proven themselves adept at that. For the past three years a Pine Plains team has placed second in the senior high division at Chatham. The school’s best time of 32 seconds is only a split second off from the world record.
It’s that mix of serious subject matter being presented in a way that will appeal to teenagers that makes SADD such a successful group. Its impact reaches throughout the hallways and classrooms in the Pine Plains Central School District and beyond.
“The elementary school kids love it,” Dorozynski said. “The parents in the community are really grateful for what we do. It’s one of the biggest clubs in school, so it’s definitely nice to see it supported.”
From PoughkeepsieJournal.com
Drug task force seizes
heroin, cocaine, guns in raid
March 19, 2010
Three people have been charged with drug
possession, following a raid in Dover where the
Dutchess County Drug Task Force found about 400
bags of heroin, as well as other drugs and cash,
police said.
The no knock raid Wednesday was part of a five-
month investigation into sales of heroin and
cocaine, according to the task force.
During the search of 24 Bannister Lane in the town,
police found heroin worth an estimated $8,000, 10
grams of cocaine, ecstasy and Oxycontin pills, four
guns, $5,000, scales, packaging materials and
records, according to the task force.
Gladstone S. Taylor, 22, Dover, and Donavan A.
Forbes, 25, Dover, were each charged with third-
degree criminal possession of a controlled
substance, a felony, and sent to Dutchess County
Jail on $25,000 bail or $50,000 bond.
A 20-year-old Mount Vernon woman was charged
with seventh-degree criminal possession of a
controlled substance, a misdemeanors, and released
on her own recognizance.
From the NY times, TECHNOLOGY | January 20, 2010
The 3 Facebook Settings Every User Should Check Now, By SARAH PEREZ of ReadWriteWeb
Changing these settings can be very important to protect your privacy and the privacy of children and teenagers.
Most Facebook users likely opt for the default settings without really understanding what they are agreeing to. Here’s how to change things back.
From PoughkeepsieJournal.com
State expands sex offender alert system
Journal Albany Bureau • March 15, 2010
ALBANY — New Yorkers who want to keep track of certain sex offenders can now register with the state’s NY-ALERT system to receive e-mail, text message, fax or telephone notifications that moderate- and high-risk sex offenders move within the state.
The sex-offender information is a new addition to the state Emergency Management Office’s NY-ALERT system, which was established in September 2007 and provides emergency information like road closures, weather events, public-health advisories and Amber alerts for missing children. The law requiring that the sex-offender feature be added took effect today.
The state Division of Criminal Justice Services, which maintains the state’s Sex Offender Registry, is partnering with the Emergency Management Office to provide the notices when a moderate- or high-risk sex offender moves into or out of a community of interest for the participant and the participant’s family. Registrants can receive alerts by e-mail, text message, fax or telephone.
NY-ALERT can only provide information about Level 3 (high-risk) and Level 2 (moderate-risk) sex offenders. By law, the state can only provide details about Level 1 (low-risk) offenders through a toll- free number, 1-800-262-3257.
The Sex Offender Registry current has 30,165 offenders: 11,293 are Level 1, 10,734 are Level 2, 7,251 are Level 3, and 608 offenders’ risk level is pending. Last year, registry staff processed nearly 31,000 address changes. An average of 170 new offenders are added to the registry monthly.Citizens must register for the service through the Department of Criminal Justice Services at http://criminaljustice.state.ny.us/nsor/nyalert.htm. Individuals can register up to three areas, either by county/municipality, ZIP code or specific address, or a combination of those three options. The participant can register a specific address and receive the sex-offender alerts for a radius around
the address, ranging from a quarter of a mile to 25 miles.
The state updates offender address details within 24 hours of receipt during weekday business hours.
From Port Washington Patch Newspaper March 1, 2010
Officials Say County is “Too Good for Drugs”
200 2nd Ave, Massapequa Park, NY
Nassau County Police Academy
Initiative is the County Executive’s third prong in combating Nassau’s heroin epidemic.
Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano speaks about the area’s heroin problem, flanked by LICADD Executive Director Jeffrey Reynolds (l.) and Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey. Credit Josh Stewart
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Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano and Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey echoed each other Monday, saying the county can’t arrest itself out of a heroin problem.
To that end, the public servants were joined by Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (LICADD) Executive Director Jeffrey Reynolds at Massapequa Park’s Nassau County Police Academy Monday to unveil the “Too Good for Drugs” initiative. The program, created by the Tampa, Fla.-based Mendez Foundation, has been utilized in different parts of the country since 1978.
More than 30 school administrators and community leaders were at the academy receiving the first of two days of training, aimed at schoolchildren in grades K-12. An investment of $180,000 has been made in the program, all of that coming from asset seizures of those nabbed for drug crimes.
“This is a wonderful way to take the profits away from the drug dealers…and we are channeling them directly back to drug prevention, enforcement, awareness and education,” Mangano said.
Monday’s conference enacted the third prong in the county’s approach to combat heroin, following an announcement last month of Operation H.A.L.T. (Heroin Abuse Location Targeting), along with an Awareness ad campaign.
More detectives are now on the heroin beat, and Mulvey said the numbers are promising. There have already been 109 heroin-related arrests over the first two months of 2010, compared to around 400 for all of 2009.
“In addition to detectives, we’ve changed our tactics,” Mulvey explained. “We’re doing some interdictions of Nassau County users who go into Queens and Brooklyn and the Bronx and come back here with drugs. We’ve had some successful seizures already, dogs hitting on some of these people we’ve been doing surveillance on at the county line and recovering heroin.”
Reynolds hopes to educate more kids before law enforcement has to step in. But he added that it’s not uncommon for different drug awareness programs to receive pushback. He hopes the structure of Too Good for Drugs is one that can be sold to all the county school systems.
“One of the challenges with the schools is that many of them are real focused on academics. Nobody wants to be at the bottom of the list that’s published [in the paper] on a regular basis,” Reynolds said. “And so they’ve got to find a way to integrate these lessons into the existing curriculum. This matches up perfectly. You’re not adding 10 sessions. You’re restructuring the health curriculum to take a more comprehensive approach that’s based on science.”
Carmel woman charged with child-in-car DWI
from Poughkeepsie Journal
March 1, 2010
A 34-year-old Putnam County woman who is accused of driving while intoxicated on Saturday is scheduled to appear March 25 in Pawling town court. Jeanine Steccato of Carmel was arrested on misdemeanor and felony DWI charges after she didn’t yield for a stop sign, according to the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office. She was driving with a 2-year-old in the car, according to the sheriff’s office. Steccato had a blood alcohol content of 0.08 percent, a misdemeanor, according to the sheriff’s office. Dutchess County STOP-DWI Deputy Neil Stuart made the arrest after stopping the 2001 Chevrolet Malibu that Steccato was operating at 9:43 p.m. on Route 55 near Route 22 in the Town of Pawling. She is accused of a Leandra’s Law violation, a felony, since one of her passengers was younger than 16, the sheriff’s office said.
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