Residential Recovery Court Opens in NE TN

From TN Department Of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Newsletter

"The 100-bed program has been established to allow the state to divert people in need of substance abuse treatment or mental health services from hard prison beds to effective treatment programs that are evidence-based and proven to have a larger impact on reducing recidivism...While prison costs an average of $65 per prisoner per day, the Recovery Court will cost an average of $35 per person per day." It opened in August and is located in the city of Wartburg, about 45 miles west of Knoxville.

What Do We Want? DATA!

Image from Nation of Change

When did we need it? - yesterday!

Funding for alcohol, tobacco and drug prevention has been part of No Child Left Behind legislation (now called the Elementary and Secondary Education Act - ESEA). Without getting into the politics of whether this legislation is achieving its purpose, an improvement to the bill could help our Coalition efforts. In particular:

• continue collecting core data (in current act) including*:
• which substances are most abused
• how often are they used
• when do our young people start using the substance
• what is their perception of harm
• what is their perception of parental or societal disapproval
• defining the core components of prevention activities to include:
• awareness of the costs and consequences of drug use and abuse
• updated information about changing attitudes
• perceptions and social norms about the dangers and acceptability of drug use
• reduced access to alcohol, tobacco and other drugs

*Although specific data collection is already defined in the bill, the "trickle down" has not yet reached Sullivan County. The Coalition needs to include this component so we might eventually benefit from its inclusion. These are the data points that are needed to apply for other prevention grants.

Coalition Meeting Highlights

(Upper left) Reps. Jon Lundberg and Timothy Hill listening to coalition members (below). Certificates of Appreciation were presented to the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office (upper right), the Bristol Police Department (middle right), and the Kingsport Police Department (bottom right) for their efforts in reducing the amount of unused medication available for abuse.

“And” / “or”  - It Makes a Difference

Representatives Jon Lundberg and Timothy Hill reported that synthetic drug legislation was improved by the change of and to or. Prosecutors no longer need to prove all of the conditions stated in the law to place charges.

Retail tobacco compliance checks were also improved by another tweak. Compliance checks can now be carried out in everyone county in Tennessee. 

It is too early to see any patterns in the data collected since the April implementation of Prescription Safety Act of 2012 , but a great discussion pointed out some of the remaining issues for consideration. 

For the upcoming session, the Coalition was assured that hemp farm legislation was unlikely to pass. The biggest debate may be whether pseudoephedrine will require a prescription.

The Coalition also presented certificates of appreciation to all of our local law enforcement agencies in gratitude for their efforts to reduce the supply of prescription drugs in our county.

Annual Meeting with Legislators

Please join us. Hear Reps. Jon Lundberg and Timothy Hill talk about last year's accomplishments and the upcoming session. What do you want to see happen? Come tell them.