WV News

• The 2008 EUDL Public Service Announcements are available. Please contact Stephanie Southall at Stephanie.Southall@marshall.edu if you would like a copy.
• Stephanie Southall (Underage Drinking Prevention Specialist) and Biddy Bostic (Synar Compliance Specialist) have begun a joint alcohol and tobacco merchant education project.  The purpose of the project is to provide community organizations with information and tips to pass on to retailers to reduce sales of alcohol and tobacco to underage customers, thus limiting the retail access of these products to youth.  If your organization is interested in participating please contact Stephanie Southall.  Click here for more information about this project.

National News

• 11th Annual Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center National Leadership Conference Reminder
  The 2009 conference, "Beyond Boundaries: Timely Trends and Technology," will be held at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Dallas, Texas. Hotel reservations can be made by calling the hotel at 1-817-778-2000; to receive the special discounted rate, mention the National Leadership Conference. Rooms are going fast, so please do not delay.  For more conference information, click here.
• Binge Drinking Damages White Matter in Adolescent Brain    A new MRI study finds that adolescents damage the white matter in their brain -- which helps relay information between brain cells -- when they binge on alcohol, HealthDay News reported April 21.   
• Depressed Teens at Higher Risk of Committing Suicide When Drinking
  A new study finds the risk of suicide rises sharply in teens that drink when they are depressed. The study conducted by the University of Connecticut Health Center shows that the suicide risk increased 68 percent among students in grades 7-12 who drank when they felt depressed and had previously thought about suicide. Risk also increased threefold among those teens who never contemplated suicide previously.
  The authors said the findings demonstrated the need to screen teens for alcohol use that could predict impulsive suicides.
  The study was published in the April 2009 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.
• Colleges Need to Target Biggest Drinkers, Study Says  College students who drink the most are at highest risk of injury and should be a focus of campus-based prevention efforts, according to the authors of a new study from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Need help getting started?

The PRC helps communities solve their own problems.  If you or your group is interested in working on preventing underage drinking locally, we can help you get started.  If you've already started, we can help you keep going.  We offer assistance on a wide variety of topics from coalition development to finding your vision, strategic planning to program implementation, evaluation to resource development and everything in between.  If you have a specific topic that you want training on, don't hesitate to contact us- we usually have someone on staff that is qualified to develop the training that you and your community have need of.