To view the availiable presentations, please click on the title of the presentation.
8:00 – 8:30 Registration and Breakfast
8:30 – 8:45 Welcome
8:45 – 9:45 Keynote Speakers
Where Do We Go From Here? How public health experts can shape the future of cannabis policy.
Over the past decades, North America has been torn apart by diametrically opposed and deeply held beliefs about cannabis. To some it inspires love, medicates the sick, and promotes well-being. To others, it is a limitless font of crime, addiction, and social unrest. Voters became tired of the War on Drugs, and the new millennium brought a wave of populist-led legalization efforts. Evaluating the success of these legalization efforts has been almost as divisive as legalization itself, with some claiming that the sky has fallen and others claiming only upside. Getting legalization right matters. Alone among policy experts, this session will offer a nuanced evaluation of this history-making experiment–and how it will profoundly impact the world for generations to come. This session will provide a tempered view of what we currently know about the effects of legalization, lessons learned, and how we can impact policy for the better from here on out.
Andrew Freedman
Former Director of Marijuana Coordination in Colorado, Partner at Freedman & Koski
Fentanyl, New Drugs and Prevention
Drug overdose deaths in America have skyrocketed in recent years from 17000 annually at the turn of the century to more than 70000 in 2017. A big part of the reason is because today many drug users don’t have any idea what they’re actually taking. In the last few years hundreds of new drugs have come to be sold on black markets including on the internet. Unlike traditional plant-based drugs like heroin marijuana and cocaine, these new drugs are entirely synthetic made in a lab. They’re knock-offs of the traditional drugs and they’re much much stronger. Over five years spent studying this problem and researching my new book Fentanyl Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Crisis (September 3 2019 Grove Atlantic) I have come to understand how these new drugs are made distributed and consumed. When it comes to prevention I advocate something different than “Just Say No” which has proven ineffective in the past especially with young people. Instead, users must have reliable accurate information to know just how dangerous these new synthetic drugs are and how different they are than traditional plant-based drugs. Information campaigns are vital at schools hospitals youth centers treatment centers and elsewhere. To augment these information campaigns I believe drug-checking kits should be available. These are inexpensive tests that inform users what’s in their drugs; whether they have say a traditional drug or a new synthetic one that’s much more harmful. Indeed a 2017 study done in Vancouver British Columbia showed that those using these types of kits were much less likely to overdose. Not long ago I visited the suburbs of Dallas Texas an area that has been hit especially hard by the scourge of new drugs. I talked with grieving parents law enforcement officers educators and counselors and to a one they agreed: It all comes down to education. A substance abuse counselor there named Grace Raulston told me that the K2 menace in the area was significantly reduced after an information campaign was disseminated. “The biggest thing we’re fighting now is education. The majority of people out there— parents especially—do not have any idea the scope of the problem we’re dealing with today” said Courtney Pero a narcotics sergeant from Plano Texas. Parents need to believe that an overdose could happen to their kid because it can happen to any kid.
Ben Westhoff
Author, Fentanyl Inc.: How Rogue Chemists are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic.
9:45 – 10:00 Break
10:00 – 11:00 Breakout Session 1
Session 1: Fake ID 101—a Collaborative Effort in Enforcing Underage Drinking (slides unavailable)
This presentation will address how a collaborative effort of State agencies, law enforcement, and prevention advocates joined to change the behavior of underage drinking in several Kansas college communities. Underage drinking and use of fake identification exist in college communities across the State. Media, enforcement, and education are key components which will be discussed as you learn about the cooperative efforts of our local law enforcement, prevention coalitions, and State agencies as they tackle underage drinking issues in their communities.
Norraine Wingfield
Director of Traffic Safety, DCCCA/Kansas Traffic Safety Resource Office
Session 2: Marijuana Prevention (slides unavailable)
This session will expand upon Andrew’s keynote presentation about strategies for marijuana prevention and policy.
Andrew Freedman
Former Director of Marijuana Coordination in Colorado, Partner at Freedman & Koski
Session 3: The Opioid Crisis – National and State Perspectives and Initiatives
This presentation will provide an overview of the opioid crisis on a state and national level as well as explore various efforts and prevention strategies occurring in Kansas to combat the crisis. This session will include an overview of the Kansas Prescription Drug and Opioid Advisory Committee, which developed and is implementing a coordinated, multi-disciplinary statewide strategic plan to provide a comprehensive approach to the opioid crisis in Kansas.
Adrienne Hearrell, MPH
Program Manager, Kansas Department of Health and Environment
Session 4: The Power of Calm: Preventing and Treating Trauma
- Science has shown that:
- Human beings CANNOT behave, listen, remember, self-regulate, become resilient, think rationally, develop cognitively, or become behaviorally or physically healthy until they can feel calm.
- Our temperament, i.e., how we are pre-wired by our DNA to respond to distress – plus the distress-management skills and habits we have been taught –are what allows us to regulate our sense of Calm.
- We are 85% sensations and 15% emotions – – both of which are called feelings — and our brain follows our body’s lead. If we learn skills for calming our sensations (breathing, heart-rate, etc.) – and we practice those skills until they become habits – we can achieve a state of calm regardless of the situation.
- Practicing coping and calming skills until they become habits means that we can prevent, interrupt, mitigate, and even reverse the harm from childhood adversity, regardless of whether or not we can identify or impact its source. And, when we do, we can effect significant positive changes in child and youth behavioral health, learning, and development.
Karen Williams, MSSW
Youth Development Consultant & Trainer in Private Practice
11:00 – 11:15 Break
11:15 – 12:15 Breakout Session 2
Session 1: Introduction to Suicide Intervention: You Can Help
Encountering suicide risk in service recipients, friends or family can be one of the most intimidating circumstances any professional will encounter in their careers. It often leads to questions of ‘what can I do?’ or fears that saying anything will ‘make it worse.’ This presentation will focus on teaching participants what to look for to recognize suicide risk. Then participants will be given some easy to follow steps for how to engage with a person who is having thoughts of suicide to promote safety and life. A brief introduction to the Zero Suicide Model for healthcare settings will also be shared.
Monica Kurz
Director, Kansas Suicide Prevention Resource Center
Session 2: What Neuroimaging Can Tell Us About Vaping and Youth
Vaping — an innocuous word that camouflages the content of nicotine in electronic vapor products — has shattered decades of the tobacco control efforts. The vaping industry’s marketing efforts are partially responsible for the rising popularity of vaping. Evidence has established a connection between marketing exposure and vaping-related outcomes (e.g., favorable perceptions and intention to use) in non-vapers. Despite this, anti-vaping advocacy and public health campaigns are still lagging behind the industry’s ever-changing marketing landscape and fast introduction of novelty products. Neuroimaging is a tool that offers a non-invasive approach to understanding what is happening in adolescents’ brains when the encounter vaping ads and products. Attendees of this session will be able to: (1) identify the latest trends in vaping, (2) describe how adolescents respond to vaping ads both neurally and behaviorally, (3) recognize the persuasion appeals in vaping ads and (4) engage in hands-on activities that may curb youth vaping.
Yvonnes Chen, PhD
Associate Professor, University of Kansas
Session 3: Co-Use of Marijuana and Tobacco: Trends and Treatment
Most people who use marijuana also smoke cigarettes, which raises questions about what will happen as marijuana legalization becomes more prevalent. This talk will cover the prevalence of co-use, trends in marijuana use and its impact on tobacco use, and what is known about the causes and treatment of co-use.
Kimber Richter, PhD, MPH, NCTTP
Joy McCann Professor of Women in Medicine & Science Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Kansas School of Medicine
Session 4: Collaboration and Strategies to Improve Safe and Appropriate Use of Opioids
Kansas Medical Society and Kansas Hospital Association leaders will describe how physicians and hospital leaders have collaborated on a statewide basis to improve safe and appropriate use of opioids in Kansas; and will share joint principles to ensure access to pain management, as well as recommendations on provider education, K-TRACS (prescription drug monitoring program) utilization, addiction treatment, and supply reduction.
Karen Braman, RPh, MS
Senior Vice President, Kansas Hospital Association
Jon Rosell, PhD
Executive Director, Kansas Medical Society
12:15 – 1:15 Lunch
1:15 – 2:15 Breakout Session 3
Session 1: Medical Marijuana: Things to Consider
Missouri just passed a medical marijuana law, and Kansas considers at least one each year. But what do these laws really permit, and what is the evidence for marijuana as a medicine? This talk will discuss products permitted by current proposals, the diagnoses that would be eligible for prescriptions, and the evidence for marijuana’s helpful (and harmful) effects.
Kimber Richter, PhD, MPH, NCTTP
Joy McCann Professor of Women in Medicine & Science Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Kansas School of Medicine
Session 2: JUUL Vape E-Cigarettes: Unifying the Tobacco Prevention Approach
Do you know what a JUUL is? Do you need to know more about vaping? Are you curious about how to address tobacco prevention now that e-cigarettes are the most commonly used tobacco product among teens? This presentation is intended for community coalition members prevention professionals service providers school personnel youth mentors and students. This interactive session will provide participants the most up-to-date information best practices to prevent tobacco initiation among youth and tools to engage youth and community members in policy systems and environmental change around tobacco.
Jordan Roberts
Youth Prevention Program Manager, Kansas Department of Health and Environment
Session 3: Changing Marijuana Attitudes and Policies: Lessons Learned from Other States and Its Implications for Kansas
Over 75% of states have adopted some type of marijuana-related policies and Kansas constituents and policymakers are grappling with the pressure to follow suit. This presentation will review rapidly changing trends in attitudes and policies related to marijuana cultivation distribution and use for medicinal and recreational purposes. We will explore tensions between federal and state level policies mistakes learned from other states and specific policies that can be implemented in early stages of policy formation to mitigate unintended harms associated with increased social allowance of psychoactive substances.
Nancy Kepple, PhD
Assistant Professor, University of Kansas, School of Social Welfare
Session 4: Youth Engagement in Substance Use Prevention
Youth engagement must involve true youth participation. Attendees will learn how young people have the power to make and implement decisions and changes with shared responsibility for their own outcomes. Youth participation is defined as things done by youth. Its essential elements are youth directing their own activity youth taking responsibility and youth making change. Youth will share how they have achieved these outcomes.
Carla Smith
Program Coordinator, Reno County Communities that Care
Breanna Colburn
Senior, Hutchinson High School
Alex Mahoney
Senior, Hutchinson High School
2:15 – 2:30 Break
2:30 – 3:30 Breakout Session 4
Session 1: Human Trafficking in Kansas
Human trafficking, a modern form of slavery, is one of the fastest growing criminal industries in the world. It is based on recruiting, harboring and transporting people for the purposes of exploitation. Health care providers are in a unique position to identify and help minor and adult victims of human trafficking. This presentation will provide specific red flags for health care providers, sample assessments and protocols, discuss vulnerabilities and review common behavioral health issues often present in victims of human trafficking.
Jennifer Montgomery
Public Affairs Director, Office of Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt
Session 2: JUUL Vape E-Cigarettes: Unifying the Tobacco Prevention Approach
Do you know what a JUUL is? Do you need to know more about vaping? Are you curious about how to address tobacco prevention now that e-cigarettes are the most commonly used tobacco product among teens? This presentation is intended for community coalition members prevention professionals service providers school personnel youth mentors and students. This interactive session will provide participants the most up-to-date information best practices to prevent tobacco initiation among youth and tools to engage youth and community members in policy systems and environmental change around tobacco.
Jordan Roberts
Youth Prevention Program Manager, Kansas Department of Health and Environment
Session 3: Leveraging Strengths of the SUD Recovery Process for Parents as an Opportunity for Child Maltreatment Prevention
This presentation shares findings from a recently conducted study of parents in recovery from substance use disorders. We will explore findings together from this study focused on challenges strengths and resources that providers can leverage across early- to mid- to long-term SUD recovery. We will then identify ways that these can be viewed from a prevention lens to help parents maintain their recovery, promote healthy parenting behaviors and mitigate risks for potential child harm.
Nancy Kepple, PhD
Assistant Professor, University of Kansas, School of Social Welfare
Session 4: Vaping, Opioid Misuse, and Cultural Competence: Connecting and Effectively Communicating with Youth About Present Day Dangers
“Just say no.” “Hugs not drugs.” “Don’t be a wacko stop tobacco.” Slogans spread to combat drug and tobacco use in the 1990s. Ask many of the youth today if they smoke and the answer is no. Ask them if they think drugs are bad and they will agree. Ask them if they or their friends have used an electronic cigarette or taken medicine that is not prescribed to them and the answer may surprise you. How do we communicate the dangers of electronic cigarettes and misusing prescription drugs to youth? This interactive presentation explores ways to be culturally competent when communicating with youth about present-day dangers: vaping and opioid misuse.
Crystal Dalmasso
Community Support Specialist, DCCCA