Surgeon General to speak at UW about preventing tobacco use among youth and adults

Youth and Tobacco Town Hall Meeting
University of Washington (Kane Hall), Seattle Campus
Thursday, June 14, 2012
7:30 a.m. - 4:40 p.m.

Three of of our nation’s top health leaders will be in Seattle for this important meeting.

-- Surgeon General Regina Benjamin will discuss her recently released report, Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults.

-- Dr. Lawrence Deyton, Director, FDA Center for Tobacco Products, will then discuss the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act and FDA’s action agenda for tobacco product regulation.

-- Dr. Timothy McAfee, Director, CDC Office on Smoking and Health will also join the morning plenary session.

This Town Hall–style meeting will be attended by public health professionals, tobacco use prevention specialists, educators, advocates, policy makers and—importantly—young people from around the Pacific Northwest. The overarching goal of the meeting is to share information, tools, and best practices in tobacco use prevention, to enhance existing efforts and to devise new strategies to help youth and young people resist social and industry pressure to initiate tobacco use, or to end tobacco use if it has already begun.

If you have any questions contact youthtobaccotownhall@air.org.

Prevention Action features local prevention scientist and the early days of social development research

Most of the substance abuse prevention work we do today is based on the Social Development Strategy developed by Richard Catalano and David Hawkins, co-founders of the UW Social Development Research Group.  The most recent edition of Prevention Action, an online publication reporting internationally on programs for improving children's health and development, includes a story about Dr. Catalano and the research he started in the 1970's. 

When they first started working together . . . Catalano and Hawkins were both convinced that a lot more could be done to prevent drug-use and delinquency occurring in the first place, before it exacted its toll on young people’s social development, education and subsequent employment.

Catalano says: “We wanted to shift services from rehabilitation to habilitation; rather than fixing established problems we wanted to equip children with the skills and resources so that they don’t engage in drugs and delinquency behavior in the first place, and to help create family, school and community environments that support this.”

The full article, along with other prevention-related articles, may be read on the Prevention Action website.

Liquor laws and the U-District

"The University of Washington Police Department (UWPD) made 24 arrests for DUIs and 33 arrests for liquor-law violations, including minor in possession, between January and May 2010," according to an article in The Daily. The May 27 article goes on to describe the history of liquor laws in the University District.

UW prevention lectures online

The University of Washington School of Social Work's 2009-2010 Endowed Professor Lecture Series includes lectures by Rico Catalano and David Hawkins, leaders in substance abuse prevention science. Both lectures may be viewed online.

Promoting Positive Adolescent and Adult Functioning through Social Development Intervention in Childhood, December 9, 2010, Dr. Catalano.

Energizing the Community to Nurture Young People, February 17, 2010, Dr. Hawkins.

UW lectures about addiction and brain science

University of Washington Television is broadcasting the 2009 Allen L. Edwards Psychology Lecture series and it includes topics such as:

Addiction and the Mind and

Brain Science as a Means of Understanding Delinquency and Substance Abuse in Youth.

Both can be watched online or listened to as podcasts.