Attention Members: If you have not already done so, please send in your membership application so we can update our files.

From our family to yours. We look forward to working with you in the New Year.

Press Release from Alachua County Government

October 21,2009
3:45 p.m.

ALACHUA COUNTY, FL – Alachua County Environmental Protection Department (ACEPD) is partnering with Keep Alachua County Beautiful, City of Gainesville, Gainesville Police Department, Alachua County Sheriff’s Department and Partners in Prevention of Substance Abuse to provide a pharmaceutical take back program for prescription and over-the-counter medications during Operation Medicine Cabinet. Operation Medicine Cabinet begins at 5:30 p.m. on October 29, 2009, at the Bo Diddley Community Plaza (111 E. University Ave., Gainesville). The event is part of a national candle light vigil in memory of those lost to drug and alcohol related deaths and those suffering from the disease of addiction.

The Narcotic Overdose Prevention & Education (NOPE) Taskforce organized the event to raise awareness of the lives lost to substance abuse, to eliminate the prejudice that follows the disease of addiction and to provide for the safe and proper disposal of unused or expired prescriptions and over-the-counter medications. A wide range of speakers will discuss the various aspects of drug and alcohol addiction.

For more information on the event, contact NOPE at 561-478-1055 ext. 1 or click here.

If you can’t make it to the event, ACEPD’s Hazardous Waste Collection Program offers drop off locations on an on-going basis at six locations throughout Alachua County. Contact 352-334-0440 for locations or click here for more information. The program has accepted over 900 pounds of pharmaceuticals for proper disposal since 2004 and was the first such program in the US to prevent medications from being improperly disposed and to address the numerous environmental and health concerns associated with improper disposal.

The fall semester has launched at the University of Florida and Sante Fe College, marking the return of thousands of people back into our community. For those of you that have not been following us for a while, we have made some significant headway over the summer including obtaining funding for our first wave of initiatives. These initiatives detail focused efforts in confronting alcohol issues in our community by primarily offering alcohol education from many perspectives. These will impact our community immediately – on Thursday, September 17th at 7pm, the Partners are unveiling our Mobile Safety Unit (pictures coming soon) at 1700 NW 1st Avenue, behind Georing’s Bookstore in St. Augustine Church’s parking lot. This Unit will be utilized by our members, particularly the University of Florida Colleges of Health and Human Performance and Nursing, Gainesville Police Department, and GatorWell at the University of Florida, to educate the public about safe drinking practices, general good health advice, and our local laws. Our primary goal is to reduce the alcohol-related vehicle crashes in and around our community, so you will see us hit the streets getting our messages out there. Come join us for some fanfare and help us keep Gainesville a safe place to live, work, and play – day or night.

The Assessment and DEN Committees are having a togetherness meeting on September 10 at noon at CDS, Inc. We have our Mobile Safety Unit and may be able to have it here for everyone to see. If you haven’t visited our website at: http://www.ourpipsa.com/ , please do so as soon as possible and don’t forget to register.

A PIPSA coalition meeting is scheduled for today, June 23 at Ironwood Country Club at noon. For more details, contact Dave Khey at 352.273.0189.

To our membership and our community – GPD just released another edition of their GPD Crime Prevention Newsletter. Find out what is happening in our community and Gainesville Police Department’s strides in crime prevention.

The PIPSA coaltion is meeting at the Corner Drug Store @ Biven’s Arm. Agenda is coming soon…and more information.

Check out http://www.hitt.org The Hippodrome Impov Teen Theatre

12:00 pm
CDS Inc., 3615 SW 13th Street, Ste 2

• Introductions
• Overview (Gwen Love- Coordinator)
• Where we are and where we are going (David Khey – Chairman of Assessment Committee)
• Report from SARG (Cindy Grant – Coach for SARG Program)
• Announcements
• Next Meeting

We are planning an assessment meeting for February 25, 2009. Please email Dave Khey – Assessment Committee Chair – if you have any questions. The agenda will be posted here soon.

Please note: Some of the links in the navigation at the top of this page are not functional at this point. We apologize while we continue to organize this site. Thanks!

Over the next few weeks, the Partnership in Prevention of Substance Abuse will be working on a digital home for the wealth of information we have compiled on local substance use and abuse issues in Alachua County, Florida. This web portal will also be the home for our community partners in regards to dialog, planning, and dissemination.