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Substance abuse harms developing brains

6/9/2019

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By Christiana Lincowski
The idea of riding out mental illnesses by using substances isn’t new, and concern is growing for youth who might be abusing drugs and other substances instead of getting the mental health care they need.

According to the Pima County Health Department’s 2019 health needs assessment report, “Most illicit drug use starts between ages 14-20 and peaks around 12th grade.” They found that students are at high risk for substance abuse when transitioning from middle school to high school.

If a teenager makes a choice to get involved with harmful substances they don’t just affect themselves. Teenagers under the influence affect people close to them and can tear apart a family. Teenagers with substance abuse problems can become out of control and physically harm peers, siblings and other family members, teachers and others.

Kaye Godbey, project coordinator at the University of Arizona’s Health Promotion and Prevention Services, said once a teenager becomes dependent or addicted they don’t have free choice in their actions and they will need others to help them pull them back.

​“Someone taking control over their health, that’s a good thing, but sometimes your brain gets so mixed up that you don’t have that option,” Godbey said. ​

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Hope lies in recovery for UA students

6/9/2019

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By Odalys Martinez
Drug and alcohol misuse is a serious issue on a national scale in the United States, and the reasons young adults get hooked is a central area of concern.

University of Arizona employee Joe Casillas and two friends shared that their substance abuse disorders started at a young age. Now the three help others who seek sobriety.

Casillas, who works with a campus recovery group, began drinking at age 14, and years of tough experiences with alcohol and drugs followed until he got into recovery.

His grandmother had an addiction as well as serious depression, and she ultimately committed suicide when he was 2 years old. He initially abstained from the using alcohol and drugs because of his grandmother’s story, but curiosity about a new experience led him into addiction, revealed the 32-year-old. 
​

Teenagers turn to using alcohol, drugs and substances for many reasons, whether out of peer pressure, to cope with a traumatic event, in response to media’s influence, or, simply, for fun. ​

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UA and TUSD team up so students can ‘Talk it Out’

6/9/2019

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By Victoria Grijalva
​The National Alliance on Mental Illness found that 37 percent of students ages 14 and older who have a mental health issue end up dropping out of school.

“We wanted to remove as many barriers as we can,” said Terri Howard, program coordinator for TUSD’s family resource centers.

Cost often is an obstacle for students and their families in getting adequate care, Falco and Howard said, but Talk it Out removes that barrier.

Many mental health services fail to provide accessibility because of fees that are too high for many or waiting lists to get into programs that insurance might cover. ​

“If you’re in a situation where you have access or your insurance is provided by the state, you have access to a multitude of services through community mental health,” Tashjian said. “However, the wait list to get into those services might be two to three months, depending on which system and what your needs are.”

Talk it Out is not only for services for diagnosed mental health issues; students and their families can use the program even if there need is just for one or two sessions, Howard said.

Tashjian and Falco supervise the program. Master’s students enrolled in the UA’s counseling program will provide counseling to students and families as part of the required practicum for their degree.

​TUSD and the UA pooled their resources for Talk it Out.

“This is actually happening out of the goodness of everyone’s hearts,” said Amanda Tashjian, director of the UA’s master’s program in counseling.

“Space is the biggest thing,” Tashjian said. “The two entities that tend to cost money are supervision and space.”

Falco said that TUSD is providing space and time, and the UA is providing personnel in the form of the graduate students.

The Talk it Out program was a long time coming. Howard said it took two years to plan, including a pilot program at TUSD’s Palo Verde Family Resource Center.

Falco explained that the pilot helped the program work out wrinkles, such as scheduling, and it began with just a few practicum students.

“We are just now functioning at full capacity,” Falco said.

Full capacity means that Talk it Out has 10 UA counseling students working at three TUSD family resource centers for the year-found program.

“Students that we’ve been seeing range in age from 5 year old all the way up to 18 years old,” Falco said. One sign of success, Falco said, is “we’re getting a lot of referrals.”

The program is continuing to grow, and Tashjian said they hope it will be a model for other school districts.

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Sex education launches healthy lives

6/9/2019

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Students need access to good sex education, not just contraceptives. Photo by: Christiana Lincowski
By Isari Martinez​
Sex education — the teaching of all things related to sexual health — has always been controversial for schools, and the subject continues to be debated, especially over what should be taught and when.

"What we discuss with our high school students is different from what we talk about with our elementary students,” said Kristel Ann Foster, a school board member in the Tucson Unified School District. “We want to make sure it’s comprehensive and inclusive and also age appropriate.”

Ideally in elementary school, students learn about body development. In middle school, students study health and sexuality, and healthy relationships are studied in high school.

Daniel Laney, a student from Cholla High School, said his experience learning sex education from elementary to high school left much to be desired.

“We were mainly doing bookwork,” Laney said.

Liza Puig, a former student at Tucson High Magnet School and Laney’s mother, said when she was in elementary they had a “Brown Bag Class,” which referred to a bag that had feminine products in it.

Her high school sex ed classes only taught about the reproductive system, contraceptive choices and STDs. “It was just plain, pretty basic,” Puig said. “I think it was pushed more in high school, because the sexuality was becoming more open then.” 

TUSD has appointed a family life curriculum committee to update the content and materials, and the school board is expected to vote on their recommendations this month. 

​“I don’t think the curriculum is very up to date, and I don’t think there is a consistency across the district because we (have not had) professional development regarding this curriculum in a long time,” Foster said.

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Hydrate! Or suffer consequences!

6/9/2019

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By Emma Schneider
Summer has rolled around in Southern Arizona once again and the temperatures are rising — along with the dangers of dehydration.

Many Tucsonans have probably experienced going about their business on a warm summer day and finding they have either run out of water or are just not drinking enough to stay hydrated.

The first signs of dehydration are a dry mouth, increased thirst, decreased urine output, dizziness, a headache and fatigue, according to eMedicineHealth. Severe dehydration can lead to reduced sweating, sunken eyes, shriveled skin, low blood pressure, an increased heart rate, fever, delirium and unconsciousness.

The worst cases can end in a coma or even death.



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CBD a treatment for chronic pain

6/9/2019

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By Kristen Bia
Cannabidiol, or CBD, is a drug extracted from marijuana that has gained the attention of the public recently, with some people singing its praises for reducing pain.

Since passage of the 2014 Farm Bill, the growth of cannabis plants for research purposes and the production of CBD products have risen. The bill allowed hemp and cannabis plants to be grown in states where medical and recreational marijuana is legal, such as, Oregon, Nevada, California and Colorado.

CBD is a naturally occuring chemical compound, one of 113 cannabinoids in cannabis plants. CBD is legal in all 50 states, though with strict regulations. CBD can’t have a THC percentage over 0.3 percent, or it is considered marijuana.

According to Dr. Lynn Parodneck, a certified medical marijuana doctor in New York, cannabinoids are natural antiinflammatory drugs that are able to prevent psychoactive diseases.

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Marijuana distributors value education

6/9/2019

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By Savannah Peña
Since medical marijuana was approved by Arizona voters in 2010, many of Tucson’s dozen dispensaries have turned to educating users about medicinal benefits rather than simply distributing their product.

“The focus was education in the beginning, and it still is even though we’ve gotten so much busier,” said Thomas Hunt, operations manager at the Downtown Dispensary on East Sixth Street. Education was owner Moe Asnani’s main purpose when he opened the dispensary in 2013, Hunt said.

The more educated people are about the use of medical marijuana the more aware they become of not only the effects but also the medicinal value, Hunt said.

“The good thing about marijuana is that it creates this homeostasis between a person and nature because sometimes we just pass through life without feeling what’s going on, and marijuana helps you have more of a central feeling with nature and with life, ” Hunt said.

Marijuana has been found to help reduce pain and inflammation in joints because of the CB2 cannabinoids, which have an affect on a person’s physical being. 

Medical marijuana may replace harsh “Western medicine” or synthetic drugs because it is a natural alternative, Hunt said. 

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