The decline in cigarette smoking is outstanding: An estimated 14% of American adults still smoke cigarettes, but that's down from 20.9% in 2005 and 24.7% in 1995. But as the use of traditional cigarettes slows down, another form of nicotine delivery rises. Hailed as a healthier alternative to cigarettes when they first appeared on the market back in the early 2000s, e-cigarettes (also called vaporizers like the Juul) may not be a stepping stone to quitting for good like many people once thought.

It's true that e-cigarettes don't contain many of the chemicals and substances found in traditional cigarettes (namely, tobacco), but they still contain the extremely addictive substance nicotine, which presents health risks of its own.

To read CNET article click here.

You can’t walk through the streets of Manhattan these days without smelling weed.

Even as evidence mounts of the health problems associated with marijuana, New York has insisted on joining other greedy states scrambling to legalize this deceptively dangerous drug.

It makes no sense at a time when American youth is suffering from an unprecedented mental health crisis.

And, in all honesty, we cannot rule out a connection between increasing marijuana use, mental illness and the recent spate of mass shootings by disturbed young males.

We don’t yet know much about the mental state or drug use of the El Paso or Dayton killers. But a former girlfriend of Dayton killer Connor Betts, 24, has indicated he was mentally ill, and two of his friends interviewed by reporters this week mentioned his previous drug use.

To view the NY Post article, click here.

CCR is proud to announce that Joe Eberstein, Program Manager for the San Diego County Marijuana Prevention Initiative will be a member of the Proposition 64 Advisory group through the Dept. of Health Care Services. The purpose of the Prop 64 Advisory Group is to share emerging trends in youth substance use, make recommendations to DHCS on best practices for youth substance prevention, and provide feedback on YEPEITA-funded program assessment, implementation and evaluation.

For more information and meeting dates, click here.

MPI will be particiapting in the 2019 OCENA Educational Conference. The Orange County Emergency Nurses Association (OCENA) conference will be on August 6th at Children's Hospital in Orange County. Attendees will be discussing a range of topics including youth substance use. This will be the second year MPI has partnered with the ENA Orange Coast chapter.

To view the ENA Orange Coast Chapter website click here.

Registration is now open for the 2019 Western State Marijuana and Opioid Summits being held from Nov 5-8, 2019. The location will be at the beautiful, Westin San Diego. Experts in the field of substance use prevention, treatment, research, health, policy and Law Enforcement will be discussing strategies to combat drug use and abuse.

 For registritration details click here.