Montgomery County, Maryland



Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Advisory CouncilMeeting MinutesThursday, November 14th, 20197:00-9:00 pm401 Hungerford Drive Rockville, MD 20850Tan Conference RoomVoting Members Present: Hardy Bennett, Laura Mitchell, Ed “Bunny” Rich, Evelyn Saim-Lobos, Dawinder “Dave” Sidhu, Larry Simmons, Kabir Singh, Cynthia Wright, Celia Young, Ghulam Abbas, Margaret MattsonEx-Officio Members Present: Hardy Bennett (DHHS), Ben Stevenson II (DHHS), Anthony Sturgess (DOCR), Kathie Durbin (Liquor Control), Rose Burnhill (DHHS), Scott Atkins (Parole & Probation)Guests Present: Andrew Romero, Betty Djawdan, Ali TaghaviOverview: The goal of the Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Advisory Council (AODAAC) is to express the views of the community in the formulation and administration of alcohol and other drug abuse prevention and treatment services in Montgomery County. Members of the Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Advisory Council serve as community representatives, who provide guidance to the County Executive and the County Council in identifying prevention and treatment needs and reviewing the county’s efforts in addressing those needs. The Advisory Council will make recommendations in support of, or to improve, current prevention and treatment efforts. The AODAAC also serves as the local drug and alcohol abuse council and submits a bi-annual strategic plan to the State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Administration. A call to order: The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm by Margaret Mattson, who will co-chair with Larry Simmons because Elyse is traveling this evening. Review of minutes from October: There was a motion to approve pending addition of notes by Laura Mitchell. Discussion of Vaping in Montgomery County with Councilmember Albornoz:Council Member Albornoz is the Chair of Health Human Services Committee, a parent of 4 children (11, 9, 6, 3), and a member at large of County Council. A year ago he was invited to a work group here in this room with people discussing vaping issues in Montgomery County. Dr. Gayle gave his medical perspective. He’s been actively working on a solution since then. He believes this is a state issue because the state usually controls tobacco legislation. However, the Zone-Text Amendment is allowing County Council to pass legislation to ban the selling of vapes within ? miles of schools, both for vape shops but also retail (7-11/grocery shops). Additional bill will ban the sale of vape flavoring within 1 mile of schools. Vape shop patrons, staff, and owners have expressed some pushback. However, in general, this is a bill that is being positively accepted. All of this is prevention; however we also want to address treatment. He then opened the floor to Q&A time. Questions to Councilmember Albornoz: Ben Stevenson: Is it possible for this to be inclusive of all tobacco products or flavored tobacco because flavored cigars are also an issue?Albornoz responded, possibly but it should be a state jurisdiction but I’m willing to try to address that within the county council.Larry Simmons: Do you have numbers of use? Albornoz responded, 1 in 4 Highschool students and 1 in 7 Middle school students use or have used electronic vaping devices. These numbers are consistent with national numbers. Ali Taghavi: Education is lacking. How will you educate students in schools? Albornoz responded, I graduated in 1994 and there was a turn in the tide that made smoking uncool and gross and suddenly peer pressure was to not use. So we need to educate youth so they can turn the tide on the way vaping is viewed. We want a youth led Marketing Campaign. Betty Djawdan: We are the only organization in youth prevention in schools and we are now in 55 schools but have no help from the county. How can we get more help? Albornoz responded, our minority health initiative has mini grants available. Margaret Mattson: Consequences in schools are very weak or nonexistent. Youth response surveys show that teens are obtaining through informal sources such as their friends as opposed to going to vape shops and/or retail locations. Albornoz responded, right now legislation is still tricky, it is not illegal for students. Students can refuse to have vapes confiscated. He also said, we enacted a bill to give school more resources to be able to enforce new legislations. Dr. Abbas: Are there any FDA approved treatments for vaping addiction and are gas stations included in the new legislation as well? Bunny: Doctors are hypothesizing that the vitamin E in vape form is what is causing damage to the lungs. Kabir: Is there an effective treatment for vaping? Are there existing treatments in the county?Laura Mitchell: There’s mini grants available through the County Collaboration Council. There is a group from CARYN going into schools. As of now there is no penalty for underaged possession. Some counties have a citation that would require speaking to a cessation specialist and would increment to fines etc. There needs to be consequences. Another concern is the loophole of floor space. Fines for selling to minors is too small and should at least be incremental. Albornoz responded that the loophole on floor space and manufacturers issues in the bill will be amended.He also said that the county can set the fines but the license is at state level.Kathie: Is the legal age 21 or 18 because with county doing checks for selling to minors, there is confusion even though state says 21,the county hasn’t changed their policy. Albornoz responded, the county age is 21 years old. Laura Mitchell: In the bill, the wording specifies if there is flavoring or any flavoring additive it can’t be sold, however just because vape juice has additives doesn’t mean it’s flavored. That is concerning and can allow for loopholes. Her other concern is it states “manufacturers may not distribute” but this wording could open the door for a middleman.Albornoz responded, we caught on to the floor space and manufacturer and are addressing the problem. Larry Simmons: At the Clarksburg Highschool youth town hall, there were no vaping questions asked. Were you surprised? Albornoz responded no because it was game 7 of the World Series that night, there was rain and a low turnout, but last night at Wheaton there were more numbers. Betty Djawdan: What we are doing is taking people in recovery to schools and collecting surveys (67 schools by the end of the year). How will you effect the kids if we are the only program? Margaret ended the discussion to adhere to the agenda time schedule. Updates:Cannabis Forum updates:Save The Date for Dec. 14th at Gaithersburg Highschool was created and sent out.Everyone is encouraged to attend and share with your networks. We are hoping for 100-200 people to attend. Nov. 23rd - Thanksgiving Day Parade 2019 (Family and friends are invited and will meet at 8am wearing dark blue shirts)3 Upcoming Opportunities to Give TestimonyNov. 20th @ 7pm – priorities hearing for County Council, given 2 minutes to present (in Rockville, on MD Ave.) Dec. 2nd @ 7pm (comments on legislation or oral testimony) Dec. 9th @ 7pm (comments on legislation or oral testimony) Committee Reports: Legislative: No meeting this week. Prevention: Margaret requesting approval of co-Chair to Elyse, she is waiting on approval before naming. Larry added that the annual project was to solicit funding for Arise & Flourish to continue to reach students at MCPS. Treatment & Recovery: Attended Drug Court graduation on Nov. 13th and it was a fantastic experience. Recommend that everyone attend a graduation when possible. We decided to have another resource fair as our annual project (March). Bunny also shared that Tree of Hope will have a Recovery Coach training for Professionals this weekend and there is an Ethics training coming up as well. There will be a Women of Positive Change event at Bauer Rec. center, from noon to 6 pm this Saturday, Nov. 16th. County Reports: Health and Human Services report: CARF review for Medically Assisted Treatment (MAT) at Rollins Avenue is ending tomorrow. Ben Stevenson talked about their most recent drug take back event. They collected 906 lbs. of prescription medication. 2 PSA’s were also created under the BtheOne tagline. One was for substance use disorder and the other was for suicide prevention. There was another PSA created for teen isolation using the Know the RiskMC tagline. The county has a new Know the Risk website with link to resources. The County Overdose Intervention Team meeting has broken into 4 work groups (prevention, treatment/harm reduction, education, public safety) Correction And Rehabilitation report: Mr. Sturgess has been working on the implementation of MAT in the correctional facilities (local jails with MAT have reduced numbers of fatalities) House Bill 116. Friends research lab was successful in receiving a grant for extended release Bup/Vivitroal in our department of Correction Rehabilitation for inmates. In the process of documenting all outcomes for Turn the Curve initiative for all programs currently running. Meeting to get MAT within the jails by January 1st but they are still working out issues. For example, individuals that transfer to state prisons that do not offer MAT, how will that be handled? Also mentioned that vaping alcohol is a new concern that hasn’t been addressed.New Business: Margaret asked Arise & Flourish if they had outcomes they could share. Evaluations are given after each presentation. They could share that information. Betty from Arise said there was a student at Churchill that created a club to increase awareness on the dangers of vaping Ben Stevenson added that Poolesville Highschool students are working on vaping education at their school.Laura M. Q’s: Challenges if going to other jurisdiction but what about release? House Bill will require reentry plan which will include Peer Specialist. The reentry plans will begin from the time they enter our system. 4 counties starting in 2020 and 6 more in 2021.Ben had invited a representative from the CDC statewide tobacco legislation to share some information with us. He shared the following: . Importance of including flavored tobacco not only vapes (cigars and cigarettes too) Just wants to make it clear that there is a possibility of stigma/punishing addicts if we’re pushing for consequences for teens that are vaping without addressing the addiction. Tobacco cessation guidelines will be used for vaping. Quitline is available in this county for 13-17 year olds. When marketing the cessation of vaping/tobacco it also needs to include prevention. At 8:56 pm there was a motion for adjournment. ................
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