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Tahoe-Truckee drug prevention efforts boosted by $626K federal grant

Special to the Sun

5-year celebration

Tahoe Truckee Future Without Drug Dependence will hold a 5-year celebration event on Tuesday, Sept. 27, from 4-6 p.m. in the Town of Truckee’s East Wing Conference Room. Call the coalition at 530-550-2309 to RSVP.

TRUCKEE, Calif. — On Friday, Michael Botticelli, Director of National Drug Control Policy, announced $85.9 million in grants for 698 Drug-Free Communities (DFC) Support Programs across the country.

The grants will provide funding to local community coalitions for preventing youth substance use, including prescription drugs, marijuana, tobacco and alcohol.

Locally, the Tahoe Truckee Future Without Drug Dependence was one of the grant recipients and will receive $625,000 over five years to facilitate youth and adult participation at the community level in local youth drug use prevention efforts.



“The evidence-based prevention work led by local DFC community coalitions is critically needed to reduce youth substance, particularly in the midst of the national prescription opioid and heroin epidemic,” said Botticelli.

In this year’s national DFC grantees announcement, the White House highlighted Tahoe-Truckee’s FWDD for their innovative opioid prevention initiative, with the following message:



“In California, the Tahoe-Truckee Future Without Drug Dependence is working toward reducing access to prescription pain medications. They are focusing on safe disposal programs, and also educating prescribers on proper prescribing practices. Currently, the coalition is working with the Tahoe Forest Health System and the Placer and Nevada County Safe Opioid Steering Committee to institutionalize new best prescribing and chronic pain management practices.”

“Our mission is to make Tahoe-Truckee a safe and drug-free place for local youth,” said FWDD Director River Coyote. “Prevention is a powerful tool to counteract substance use and abuse in our community, we will use this funding to help youth in Tahoe-Truckee make healthy choices about substance use.”

DFC’s 2014 National Evaluation Report showed a significant decrease in past-30-day use of prescription drugs among youth in DFC communities. The report also found a significant decrease in past-30-day use between the first and most recent data reports for alcohol, tobacco and marijuana use among middle school and high school youth in DFC communities.

Prescription drug misuse prevention is one of the core measures of effectiveness for local DFC coalitions, and coalitions nationwide have led innovative opioid prevention initiatives.

“We’re extremely pleased that this additional funding will allow FWDD to continue the important work of reducing the use and abuse of alcohol and drugs in our community,” said Adam McGill, FWDD Coalition Chair and Truckee Police Chief.

The DFC Support Program, created by the Drug-Free Communities Act of 1997, is the nation’s leading effort to mobilize communities to prevent youth substance use. Visit bit.ly/1XEDtUi to learn more.

FWDD began in 2010 with local parents, community members and agencies to address growing concerns about alcohol and drug use among Tahoe-Truckee youth; key partners include Placer and Nevada counties, Tahoe Truckee Unified School District, Tahoe Forest Health System, Truckee Police Department, Placer County Sheriff’s Office, Community Collaborative of Tahoe Truckee and Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation.

This article was provided by Tahoe Truckee Future Without Drug Dependence. Visit ttfwdd.com to learn more.


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