Ready to Stop Teen Alcohol and Drug Use

Teens who drink alcohol or use marijuana are the targets of a new program designed to graphically demonstrate the consequences of drug and alcohol use. Coordinated by UAB’s (University of Alabama at Birmingham) Injury Control Research Center (ICRC), the program will target teens brought before the Jefferson County Family Court on a first offence for marijuana or alcohol use.

July 6, 2000

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Teens who drink alcohol or use marijuana are the targets of a new program designed to graphically demonstrate the consequences of drug and alcohol use. Coordinated by UAB’s (University of Alabama at Birmingham) Injury Control Research Center (ICRC), the program will target teens brought before the Jefferson County Family Court on a first offence for marijuana or alcohol use.

The program, called READY (Realistic Education on Alcohol and Drugs for Youth), features activities that organizers hope will dramatically alter teens’ perceptions about drug and alcohol use. Teens will see a graphic slide show prepared by the Jefferson County Coroner/Medical Examiners Office demonstrating the potential trauma and violence caused by drug and alcohol use. The teens will also spend a night in the emergency department of either of the area’s adult level-one trauma centers, UAB Hospital or Carraway Methodist Medical Center, for a first-hand view of the possible effects of drug and alcohol abuse.

“This program is designed to educate teens and shock them a little,” says UAB emergency medicine physician Dr. Kurt R. Denninghoff, medical director of the READY project. “We hope to break through the typical teenage attitude of ‘It can’t happen to me’ with the realization that injury or death from using drugs and alcohol can and does happen all too frequently.”

The program is limited to teens aged 14-17 who appear in Family Court for a first offence for alcohol or marijuana use. The program has four components: an orientation; the slide show; the night in the emergency department; and a counseling session with Family Court counselors. Students will also be required to write an essay recounting their experiences.

“The concept is to reach these young people early, after just one offence, in order to change their behavior before it is too late,” says Family Court Judge Sandra Ross Storm.

The program is modeled after similar efforts in California. In addition, UAB is preparing a research study to measure the overall success of the program with long term follow-up of the teens involved. Program officials will hold a media briefing to introduce READY on Monday, July 10 at 11:00, in UAB’s West Pavilion Conference Center, 620 19th Street South.

“The program has met with positive reviews in other cities, but there has never been a formal analysis of its results ” says Denninghoff. “We intend to follow the teens who participate in the program for a period of time to determine if this program really does positively influence their behavior.”

READY is a collaborative effort involving the Injury Control Research Center; UAB Hospital; UAB department of emergency medicine and the UAB division of trauma/burns and surgical critical care; Carraway Methodist Medical Center; Children’s Hospital; Jefferson County Family Court; the Jefferson County Coroner/Medical Examiners Office; the Jefferson County Sheriffs Department and the Birmingham Police Department.