Grant to target youth alcohol, drug abuse
Photo 
Jennifer Braun
EVANSVILLE — A local group has been awarded a $625,000 grant to aid its efforts in fighting underage drinking and drug abuse in Evansville.
The money, which comes from the federal Drug Free Communities Support Program, will be awarded across five years to BASE, also known as Building A Safer Evansville. According to its website, the coalition's mission is "to raise awareness about the impact that high risk behaviors have on our community, provide education and engage all stakeholders to reduce youth substance abuse."
The single biggest outlay of the grant will be for the cost of a full-time staffer who will serve as executive director of the coalition, said Jennifer Braun, BASE project coordinator.
The coalition plans to use the money to offer training and mentoring programs at the Evansville Youth Center and at area schools. BASE also will organize campaigns to discourage drug abuse and drinking at high-risk during high-risk youth events such as Prom and Homecoming.
Since 2010, Evansville has seen 47 arrests for underage drinking, 11 juvenile arrests for possession of marijuana, 21 arrests for youth possession of drug paraphernalia and 14 arrests for providing alcohol to minors, Braun said in an email.
The ultimate goal of the local program is to promote a significant decrease in underage drinking and prescription drug abuse, Braun said.
"It's a great thing for Evansville," she said. "It's going to help us change the culture of the community."
DRINKING, DRUG ABUSE NUMBERS
This data is from the 2012 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which is administered once every two years to sophomores and seniors in Wisconsin public high schools.
Had at least 1 drink in the past 30 days:
Evansville: 47.7 percent
Rock County: 38 percent
Had five or more drinks in a row, in the past 30 days:
Evansville: 27.7 percent
Rock County: 22.5 percent
Used marijuana in the past 30 days:
Evansville: 22.6 percent
Rock County: 17.6 percent
Used prescription drugs without a prescription:
Evansville: 8.2 percent
Rock County: 10.7 percent
Source: Building a Safer Evansville
Aug 31, 2012 at 3:08 p.m.
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Is this article about arresting people?
I thought is was about drug prevention. If it was about arresting people for drugs the comments would have been disabled.
Aug 31, 2012 at 11:57 a.m.
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Seems like the war on drugs is a lost cause and bottomless money pit.
Aug 31, 2012 at 8:33 a.m.
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'are they doing this to assure they always have a steady stream of people to arrest?'
No. They do this to try and find someone who will rat on their guy so they can work their way up the food chain. Never realizing that if they close one door, another opens IMMEDIATELY and yes that next door is as tax free as the first.
Aug 31, 2012 at 8:12 a.m.
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Yep,
Who is grant and where does he get all his money? What happened to having fundraisers, now everyone just gets a grant.
Aug 31, 2012 at 7:10 a.m.
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Why do they need a grant when we already pay for this service with our taxes? And also, why do they continue to leave the dealers and growers alone and target the users? Are they doing this to assure they always have a steady stream of people to arrest? Constant flow of revenue (fines)...seems like it. They need to fix the laws that protect the growers and dealers....they are light years ahead of everyone else. More money wont fix anything. They need to restructure.
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