Rockville Centre community leaders attend anti-drug conference in Orlando

Members of the Rockville Centre Police Department were among local representatives who attended the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America’s 17th annual Mid-Year Training Institute last week in Orlando, Fla.

The week-long training from July 15 to 19 taught participants how to address drug use by offering nearly 100 courses geared towards helping attendees find solutions specific to their community’s toughest substance-use problems.

“The Mid-Year [event] is a unique professional development opportunity for coalition leaders and key community stakeholders to learn about the latest research and effective strategies that will directly help them in their critical work of preventing substance use and misuse,” said Pat Castillo director of the National Coalition Institute and vice president of training operations. “After four days of intensive training, leaders will return to their communities with new knowledge, skills and strategies, along with new ways to add to their existing roadmaps to continue to create environments where youth thrive – healthy and [drug-free].”

Along with the village’s Police Commissioner, James Vafeades, and Det. Nicholas DeLuca, youth officer of the department, Ruthanne McCormack, project coordinator of the Rockville Centre Coalition for Youth, attended the conference. The coalition formed in 2014, and the following year, it was given a five-year, $625,000 grant from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy’s Drug-Free Communities Support Program, and has since spread anti-drug messages throughout the village in a variety of ways.

McCormack said the conference detailed substance-abuse trends, including vaping among high school students, which in New York has doubled between 2014 and 2016, and far exceeds the rate of cigarette smoking, according to the state’s Department of Health. The coalition has raised awareness about the harmful effects of these electronic cigarettes over the last year and paid for an anti-vaping billboard next to the John A. Anderson Recreation Center to be displayed throughout the summer.

Covering topics such as anti-bullying, mental health, and youth coping skills, the conference’s main point, McCormack said, was how to spread the message of substance abuse prevention at a young age. “It’s not going to happen overnight,” she said, “but the more we do, the smarter the kids will be as they get older.”

Vafeades said in addition to vaping, the conference offered the latest information in combating marijuana use and underage drinking.

According to results of the New York State Youth Development Survey, which the coalition released in March, 27 percent of Rockville Centre students in grades eight through 12 reported having had five or more alcoholic drinks in a row at least once; 72 percent said it is rather easy to get alcohol; and those surveyed said that only 30 percent of adults in the neighborhood find drinking wrong.

The conference, Vafeades added, stressed the importance of being proactive. “…That’s what we’ve been doing and that’s where we’ve been effective,” he said, “so it’s good to know that our policies and our enforcement efforts are on the right track with everyone around the country.”

DeLuca said he was able to go to the conference through a scholarship funded by CADCA, and that he learned about an array of topics, including the effect that the legalization of marijuana would have on communities.

McCormack noted that the Rockville Centre Coalition For Youth would be hosting town hall-style forums in the next year on different substance-abuse topics.

“There’s a lot of information that we come back with that the residents don’t get to hear,” she said of the conference. “Our job is to kind of update everyone on what’s going on.”