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1934 - Bouquet Canyon Reservoir, replacement for ill-fated St. Francis Dam & reservoir, begins to fill with water [story]
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Message from City Manager Ken Striplin
| Tuesday, Aug 4, 2015
Ken Striplin

Ken Striplin

One of the topics we are very focused on at City Hall is combating drug use among teens. Informing and protecting our youth from the devastation of drug abuse is not just a city issue but also a global one.

In an effort to best educate and support a drug free lifestyle, we’ve teamed up with the Sheriff’s Department, county of Los Angeles 5th District, Hart School District and several nonprofit agencies to provide regular programs and education that is relevant and consistent.

In every junior and senior high school locally, we offer the Drug Free Youth in Town (DFYIT) program. This is a free, school-based, voluntary drug prevention program that complements law enforcement efforts, prevention and intervention programs.

Staying drug-free is a mandatory requirement for DFYIT membership, so confidential, random drug testing is conducted throughout the year. The tests are not meant to be punitive, but rather to give members a convenient excuse and an easy way out when pressured to use drugs. We have hundreds of students participating in the program on all of the junior and senior high school campuses.

DFYIT is more than an anti-drug program. It’s a grass-roots initiative aimed at changing perspectives on drug use within our community and society as a whole. Each campus club has its own unique culture and offers a venue for students to make friends, participate in community service opportunities, fun activities and leadership training and have positive experiences that encourage each individual to make good choices.

Annually, we sponsor a hard-hitting drug education and resource fair for parents and teens. This year’s program, “The Immature Teen Brain on Pot,” will be held on Wednesday, Aug. 26, beginning at 6 p.m.

In talking with our community partners who provide drug treatment and counseling, nearly without exception, all agree their clients all started their drug abuse by using marijuana. They also shared that they have seen that maturity can pretty much stop at the time the person starts using marijuana, which is why some young adults may have trouble making good decisions about drug use in their 20s.

I encourage you to attend the program and learn all you can about drug use, signs of drug use, real information about the impacts of marijuana use, and what you as a parent, friend, partner or concerned resident can do to help.

For more information about “The Immature Teen Brain on Pot,” visit www.heroinkills.org.

 

Ken Striplin is city manager of the city of Santa Clarita.

 

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45 Comments

  1. Bart Joseph says:

    I agree that regulations on pot use is needed.

    Its disappointing to see our local government not embrace change and continues to ignore despensory regulations to cutoff drug supply. Big pharma did their part and put a gelling agent into co trolled pain killers popularizing herion. Remove the dealers remove the problem. Regulate it or more kids will die.

  2. Smoking Pot is a gateway to junk food.

  3. Alcohol can also lead to crack/ heroin/ and meth. Kids get bored of weed so they try more harder drugs like mentioned.

    • The addictive behavior is genetic. Their drug of choice may vary but they also tend to combine two or three. It starts in many homes and getting their first fed rug hit. Oftentimes it’s free. Weed, is a gateway drug and it’s wanting a higher high or to experiment with spice or bath salts etc. Boredom no, addicted yes.

    • Alcohol is the worst gateway drug. Idk why people think that Marijuana is a gateway drug. The only time I ever thought about doing harder stuff is when I was drunk.

    • If I was high on herb it wouldn’t be a logical step to do heroin or cocaine or meth. It just doesn’t happen like that.

  4. Maybe they should focus on educating all the junky parents as well and have the parents drug tested regularly. A vast majority of the kids in this valley are strung out on heroin as a result of the prescription pills that are available in the medicine cabinets of their own homes.

  5. They’ve also proven that all of those addicts started with Breast milk or formula. And I bet they all have eaten pizza too

  6. David Devlin David Devlin says:

    Why do you think they call it dope?

  7. If you want to limit teen marijuana use then legalize it and require vendors to check ID. Its currently easier for a teen to score a bag of weed than a 6 pack of beer because most recreational marijuana vendors do not check ID. However the gateway drug argument is so old and busted you should really come up with a new argument. Correlation is not equal to causation right?

    • It’s old, it’s still true only Marijuana is 10x stronger than in then”old” days. It’s still addictive but more so,and still a demotivating drug. I remember the hippies in the park.? the homeless are flocking to Colorado to get free drugs. You using?

    • Marijuana users do not experience physical addiction in the same way alcohol, and harder drug users do. It’s also naturally occuring, not synthetic like most everything else out there, yet so much time and energy is wasted to ban something that is naturally occuring in nature…this war on weed is both futile and laughable.

    • Homeless racing to Colorado for marijuana? I haven’t read or heard that, considering you have to have money to buy.

  8. More inflammatory propaganda from the City? Naaawww…

  9. Sean Cohen Sean Cohen says:

    Everybody turns into doctors n scientists when you start talkin bad bout weed

  10. Myk Halibut Myk Halibut says:

    The fact you labeled it as pot shows how uneducated you are about cannabis.

  11. Every reputable medical, neuroscience and neuropsychological reference I have read that address the cannabis gateway drug issue within the last 5 years agrees that it is in fact NOT A GATEWAY DRUG. Using pot does not CAUSE people to chose to use harder drugs when they would have otherwise refrained.

  12. Blake Frye Blake Frye says:

    What’s your post going to be like once weed is legalized in 2016..? Last election came close (54% opposed) surely more people will vote this time..

  13. Tawny Biggs says:

    I would love to hear from someone with an educated background most of the drug and alcohol treatment owners and counselors with certificates do not have any formal education and are trying to further their own FOR PROFIT business. Doctors and Psychologists need to be speaking on this topic NOT uneducated people trying to create fear in the public to profit their businesses.

  14. Tawny Biggs Tawny Biggs says:

    I would love to hear from someone with an educated background most of the drug and alcohol treatment owners and counselors with certificates do not have any formal education and are trying to further their own FOR PROFIT business. Doctors and Psychologists need to be speaking on this topic NOT uneducated people trying to create fear in the public to profit their businesses.

  15. Jason Moller Jason Moller says:

    You can plan to build habits at any age. Take care of your friends reputation adults and children.

  16. Jason Moller Jason Moller says:

    Apple Jacks. JHickerson is very bright and mature.

  17. I bet they all watched sesame street when they were kids too. We should ban that too

  18. Oh man. Whoever collaborated on this article REALLY needs to smoke to get a clearer picture of what it’s ACTUALLY like.

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