Out of the Dark Coalition Meeting Feb. 2
Come and get involved with people in your community at the next Craighead Out of the Dark Coalition quarterly meeting to be held on Thurs., Feb. 2 from 11:30 am-1:00 pm at Mid-South Health Systems, 2707 Browns Ln., Jonesboro, Arkansas.
Keynote Speaker: Mike Leatherwood
(see information below) This is a public community meeting and if you have not attended before then please take a minute and sign up on our OD Coalition page on this website. Lunch is being sponsored by Integrity Bank and Doctors Anatomic Pathology Services (DAPS). We preorder the lunches so please RSVP by contacting Ms. Jean Strauser at jstrau@sbcglobal.net or email us at outofthedark.org@gmail.com. Skip Mooney, Jr. speaking at a press conference that was
held by Chris Thyer, U. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas on January 20, 2012 in Little Rock, Arkansas, to announce "Operation Big 80s" and federal charges against 51 people in 6 cases relating to the trafficking of Hydrocodone and Oxycodone/OxyContin. |
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Three (3) new directors have been elected to the board of directors of Out of the Dark Inc.
The new directors are Phyllis Curtis, Mike Leatherwood and Brenda Butler. They were elected to serve their respective terms effective January 1, 2012. Phyllis Curtis presently serves as the Secretary for the Craighead Out of the Dark Coalition. She is a Professional School Counselor and the Drug Education Coordinator for the Bay School District. Phyllis has been involved with drug prevention education for the past 25 years and she has sponsored one of the oldest drug-free school clubs in Arkansas, which merged with the Out of the Dark School Chapters in 2009. Phyllis is the past Chair of the Craighead County Chapter of the Arkansans for Drug Free Youth and she has coordinated the administration of the Arkansas Prevention Needs Survey in the Bay School District since its inception. Mike Leatherwood is a certified life coach, specializing in the area of substance abuse interventions. He received his Masters Degree in Religious Studies from Harding Graduate School of Religion in Memphis, TN. and his Masters in Social Work from New York University. Mike has over 30 years of experience in the field of substance abuse services, having worked in inpatient, outpatient and half way house settings. He was the founder and director of The Third Step House, an award winning relapse prevention program in Louisville, KY and honored as a Kentucky Colonel by the governor of Kentucky for his outstanding contribution to the State in the field of substance abuse treatment. After moving to NYC, Mike began the outpatient program, “Chemical Recovery”, a faith-based intervention and treatment program so successful that over 400 groups were started in 7 countries. This program continues to be responsible for thousands of people getting and staying substance free. In addition to the hundreds of formal and informal interventions conducted over his thirty-year career, Mike is also program and spiritual director for Oakhaven Retreat Center in Jonesboro, AR and co-author of, “Some Sat in Darkness: A Spiritual Guide to Recovery”. Brenda Butler is employed by the Department of Community Corrections and serves as a Certified Alcohol & Drug Counselor for the 2nd Judicial Drug Court. She is a member of the Arkansas Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (AAADAC) and serves as an area representative for the state organization. Brenda has been working in the field of addiction for over 13 years. She is a published author and an active member of her church, including working in the Drama Ministry. Also serving on the Out of the Dark Board are Kim Brown, Mike Burroughs, Dr. Charles Coleman, Shirley Gibson, Carol Mayfield, Terri Mitchell, Zach Morrison, Mark Perrin, Kevin Richardson, Michael Steele, Jean Strauser, Johnny Terrell and Skip Mooney, Jr. |
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Want to know how the Out of the Dark Movement started? Well here is the story published by Occasions Magazine. 
Out of the Dark Inc. is now accepting nominations for two (2) director positions to join the Board of Directors in January of 2011.
There are 15 director positions and the board is responsible for overseeing the Out of the Dark Coalitions and the Out of the Dark School Chapters. If you are interested in being considered as a director then please provide us with your information HERE. For questions, please contact us at outofthedark.org@gmail.com. 
Ashley was one of our guest speakers at the last CODC quarterly meeting and she gave a great message of hope. It is people like Ashley and her Mother that keep many of us focused on the real issues that we have to address in our community.
Check out and share the photos from the Oct 25th Students' Downtown Rally/March. Historic! 
The next Craighead OD Coalition quarterly luncheon meeting to follow up on the local goals and community action plans that each of the community sector committees have established has been set for:
FEBRUARY 2, 2012
Mid-South Health Systems (2707 Browns Lane)
11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
These are free public meetings
On May 13, 2011, high school students with the Valley View Out of the Dark Chapter presented an in school drug awareness program to several hundred 6th and 7th grade Valley View students. The VV OD Chapter is one of several proactive OD School Chapters in Craighead County, Arkansas, established as part of the Out of the Dark "Local Level Up" community model to fight the growing monster called chemical addiction. Check out our schools Here.
 Students demostrate for prescription drug laws Pause webpage player below before playing video “Teens Rally Lawmakers for a Prescription Drug Monitoring Program” Visit our Out of the Dark School Chapters! 
 Johnny Terrell CEO Service Group 360 SERVICE Group 360 presented Out of the Dark Inc. with a $2,500.00 donation at a recent Craighead OD Coalition meeting to challenge the Craighead County industry/business sector to provide financial support for the Out of the Dark Movement. “I was blown away to see that drug use and abuse had gone down in every category except 10th grade,” said Mr. Johnny Terrell, CEO. “The only difference is the Out of the Dark program. As a company, we’ve got to be part of this.” Read the complete ODC meeting report. 
Check out some of the completed community projects and those that are in the works.
Out of the Dark Memorial Park
We are establishing a community committee to explore the possibilities of building an Out of the Dark Memorial Park in Jonesboro to honor the memory of those loved ones in our community that we have lost to drugs. If you are interested in serving on this committee, please contact us at outofthedark.org@gmail.com. 
Need Help? Don’t know where to turn? 
We need your ideas to help address the drug problems in Northeast Arkansas because we can not do this alone! VOLUNTEER TODAY on our OD Volunteer page.
Want to find out more about the Out of the Dark Movement. Contact us for a speaking engagement at outofthedark.org@gmail.com. |
Community Intervention
The ugly truth is that we have historically been treating our chemical addiction problems as a moral “will power” type problem rather than a medical problem, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Based upon the ASAM press release, we have established our public policies over the past 40 years by relying on a false premise. When we base our public policies on a false premise and couple that with the type money involved in our federal and state policy making process we create a cocktail for disaster. And that is what we have right now, one big public disaster. Until we get the premise right we will never stop the rapid growth of the collateral damage that chemical addiction is causing to every sector of every community in this country. However, if communities will get involved to discuss their own local drug problems they can make the correct policy changes from the local level up. There IS power in numbers. Hopefully the new ASAM definition will give us all a better understanding of what we are dealing with and help us formulate polices one community at a time that actually address the issues involved. 
New Drive Drug Disposal Drop Box The City of Jonesboro now has a new drive by pharmaceutical drug disposal drop box. The drop box is located in front of the Jonesboro Police Department at 410 Washington Avenue. The permanent drop box was made possible by Out of the Dark Inc., NEA Career and Technical Center, Rotary of Club of Jonesboro, the City and the Jonesboro Police Department.  410 Washington Avenue Side Effects of Prescription Drugs Few Consider! “Some of the active chemicals found in drugs cannot be removed by waste-water treatment facilities. Chemicals that remain in the water can harm fish and other wildlife and can even be found in the drinking-water supply.” Gov. Mike Beebe – The Sun (10.30.11) In the course of a five-month inquiry, the Associated Press discovered that drugs had been detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 Major U.S. Regions affecting at least 41 million Americans.
  Arkansas Medical Society Honors The Out of the Dark Movement
Mexican Drug War comes to Jonesboro Arkansas – “Operation Ice Princess”. According to federal authorities the Jasso-Arciniega drug trafficking organization was based in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and had been involved in the distribution of multiple pounds of methamphetamine ice, as well as multi-kilogram quantities of powder cocaine through established distributors based in central Arkansas communities including, Jonesboro; Searcy; Kensett; Batesville; Rose Bud; Little Rock; and Conway. Read more...
Out of the Dark Students Speak Out. “I’d say about 75 percent of people in our school have done drugs at some point,” said Norman, president of the JHS Out of the Dark anti-drug campus organization. “I think about 50 percent of them are using drugs regularly. It’s a lot, and I’m concerned because my little sister is in second grade and will be coming up through the school in the next few years.” Read more... Contributing to the Teen Addiction: Bad State Policy. “Substance Abuse Prevention Dollars and Cents in Arkansas: A Cost-Benefit Analysis” (Feb. 2010), released by the Office of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention tells us that investing in drug prevention is the most effective way to reduce the economic burden placed on our public systems. Here is the report (pdf). 
The American Society of Addiction Medicine (August 2011) - It’s now official. The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) has issued a press release this week announcing for the first time an official position that addiction is not solely a behavioral and/or substance abusing problem. According to the ASAM, addiction isn’t just about will power but it is a chronic brain disease and like other chronic conditions such as heart disease or diabetes, treating addiction and preventing relapse is a long-term endeavor, the specialists concluded. The new definition of addiction was released after a four-year process involving more than 80 experts and states that addiction is a primary disease, meaning that it’s not the result of other causes such as emotional or psychiatric problems. Go here to read the entire ASAM Press Release.
Shoveling Up II: The Impact of Substance Abuse on Federal, State, and Local Budgets a new study report released on May 27, 2009, found that the Federal, State and Local Governments spend almost half a trillion dollars a year on substance abuse and addiction and that out of every dollar spent only 1.9 cents goes to prevention and treatment even though research has established that every dollar spent on quality treatment can deliver a return of $12.00 or more in reduced substance abuse-related criminal justice and health care costs. Read More... Global Commission of Drug Policy - According to a report released by the Global Commission of Drug Policy the “War on Drugs” is a complete failure. The war ties up police and judicial resources, clogs our prisons with nonviolent offenders and offers a law enforcement solution to a medical problem. It also shows that, since the inception of the war in 1970, billions of dollars have been spent, but production and consumption of drugs has only increased. It is not possible to frighten or punish someone out of drug dependence, but with the right sort of evidence-based treatment, dependent users can change their behavior and be active and productive members of the community. Read More... Drug deaths now outnumber traffic fatalities in U.S., data show. According to a story published in the LA Times, drug deaths now outnumber traffic fatalities in the United States because of the increase in prescription narcotic overdoses. Go here. 
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