This February is a little longer than usual - it's a leap year - and today, Thursday, February 29th - is Leap Day! 🐸
The calendar oddity means this year is actually 366 days long instead of the regular 365. Without Leap Day, our calendars would be out of sync with the seasons.📆
Let's celebrate the uniqueness of having an extra day to enjoy this month!
Neptune’s Fix Elixir, ZaZa, Pegasus, and Tiana, known as “gas station heroin”, are products containing Tianeptine that affect brain chemicals and offer potential for abuse. This tricyclic antidepressant has not been approved by the FDA for medical use. Tianeptine interacts with opioid receptors in the brain and can mimic euphoria and effects of heroin. Tianeptine use can cause seizures, electrolyte abnormality, flu-symptoms, depression, anxiety, coma – even respiratory failure and death.
These products - sold in pills, powder, and in fruit-flavored drinks - are highly addictive. Because they are easily accessible, kids may mistake them as being safe. With so many substances readily available online or at local stores, parents are urged to talk to children about the risks. Tianeptine is not currently controlled under the Controlled Substances Act, but recently Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody filed an emergency rule categorizing tianeptine as a Schedule 1 substance.
Overview of Tianeptine: https://www.drugs.com/illicit/tianeptine.html
Just for Today…free yourself from the weight of drugs and alcohol.🦋 Better yet – don’t be tempted to start smoking, drinking, or taking drugs at all!
You’ll learn so much about yourself when you choose not to numb uncomfortable feelings with substances. Educate yourself with the facts, embrace your inner strength💪and reach out to others for support.
The best thing you can ever do is to own your own life story and
enjoy your best physical and mental health - we believe in you!👏
Today’s
Thursday Thought from Love to Know was chosen to remind us to Just
Be You. Let go of who you think you should be and what you think you should do.
Remember, you can do anything but you don't have to do everything.🌟
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/own-the-upside-prevention-summit-tickets-820398503007?aff=oddtdtcreator
Registration is FREE and a light breakfast and lunch will be served. Polk School Board employees and law enforcement officers may earn up to 6.5 CEU's. Information on guest speakers and additional prevention topics will be announced soon.
Own The Upside was initiated by the Drug Free Coalition partnership of Hardee, Highlands, and Polk counties in Central Florida and founded on the Positive Community Norms Theory of celebrating the positives! The negatives we often hear in media and society may make us forget that there are many encouraging positives to celebrate the “upside.” Data collected annually via the Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey (FYSAS) reports that most youth do not engage in risky behaviors.
Own The Upside believes in supporting youth through proactive prevention programs to reduce access, identify risky behaviors, change community attitudes towards alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use, and empowering young people to make positive healthy choices. While this training will educate the public about some of the current negative trends, we will also remind those on the front line that MOST are making the right decisions.
Please visit https://www.owntheupsidepolk.com or call InnerAct Alliance at (863)
802-0777.
Happy Valentine’s Day!💖Sometimes we all need a mid-week break to help us connect to the present. Thanks to our friends at @Positively Present for sharing a fun Valentine’s-themed I-Spy graphic to help us do just that!
Take a break at some point today and ground yourself in the present by searching for some of the following items pictured:
*The
initial of the person you love
*Something you’d give as a gift
*A pencil and 2 paintbrushes
*Heart-shaped locks and keys
*A broken or cracked heart
*All of the conversation hearts
*Something you’d wear in winter
*Flowers that are pink or red
*All 4 of the four-leaf clovers
*The words “I love you”
*Something delicious to eat
*All the lips and lipsticks
*A heart-shaped musical note
*The words “I love me”
UthMpact’s goal is to promote a safe and fun Prom Night. For information, please visit www.uthmpact.org, www.projectprompolk.com, or contact Samantha McCain at (863) 802-0777.
With increased regulations restricting sale of vaping products, another alternative to smoking has emerged to grab a growing share of the nicotine market – oral nicotine products.
Popular oral nicotine products like ZYN, On!, VELO, Rogue, and Lucy are enticing young people with berry, citrus, and cinnamon flavors sold in bright, eye-catching packages that look just like candy.
Our friends at the Partnership to End Addiction shared the results of a survey conducted in fall of 2021, which found that 21% of youth reported using oral nicotine products in their lifetime: 12% used gum, 11% used pouches, 9% used lozenges, 8% used tablets, and 7% used toothpicks.
Available in many forms – lozenges, pouches, gum, and even toothpicks – these oral nicotine products can deliver high doses of nicotine disguised in appealing flavors. The use of candy-like packaging is concerning because kids may not recognize them as being unhealthy since they don’t look like traditional cigarettes or nicotine products. And, since there’s no smoke, vapor, or distinct smell associated with their use, they are a lot easier to hide from adults.
Learn the facts about oral nicotine products and other
harmful products at https://drugfree.org/
Vaping is NOT harmless! Research shows many teens and young adults don't realize that the flavors they use in vaping can contain nicotine, the addictive compound found in tobacco. 🚭
Many vapes also contain propylene glycol, glycerin, chemical flavorings, and other compounds with unknown health effects. As a result, those who vape - even just flavoring - may inhale and ingest potentially harmful chemicals. 🕱
Other vaping products can also cause harm. In 2020, thousands of people got sick and dozens died from an illness called EVALI - e-cigarette or vaping-use associated lung injury. Vitamin E acetate, an addictive in some THC-containing vaping products, is strongly linked to EVALI. When heated and inhaled, vitamin E acetate can damage the lungs. 🫁
Know the Risks before you use
https://e-cigarettes.surgeongeneral.gov/getthefacts.html
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) 2020 Monitoring the Future survey showed that the number of teens who say they vape nicotine has leveled off but still remains high. The # of teens who say they smoked cigarettes in the past month has declined significantly since the mid-1990s and is now at or near the lowest it ever has been.
At first, cigarette smoking was thought to be more harmful because the product is being burnt and smoke inhaled into the lungs. But, research shows very similar damage from heating up vaping solutions and inhaling that vapor into the lungs. It's been found that youth who vape are 6.8 times more likely to start smoking cigarettes within 18 months compared to youth who do not use e-cigarettes.
Nicotine is a habitual product - once a person starts using it via smoking or vaping, it can become very difficult to quit using. An even better strategy is never to start.🚭
Why is Black History celebrated in February? – February is the birth month of two
prominent figures who contributed to the freedom of enslaved African Americans.
President Abraham Lincoln, born February 12, issued the Emancipation
Proclamation which declared enslaved people free and linked slavery directly to
the Civil War. February was also the birth month of Frederick Douglass who was born
enslaved and later became a leader in the abolitionist movement.
Since 1976, every American president has designated February as Black History Month and endorsed a specific theme. The 2024 Black History Month theme is "African Americans and the Arts" to honor the key influence that African Americans have had in the fields of performing arts, literature, fashion, folklore, language, film, music, architecture, culinary, and other forms of expression. 🎵🎨🎭
During Black History Month, let's deepen our commitment to freedom and equality as we continue to work to end racism in all its forms. ❤
