South Tahoe Drug Free Coalition Seeks Help to Make Lasting Impact in Community

Melody Easton is here to make a difference. Recently tapped as the coordinator for the South Tahoe Drug Free Coalition, the action oriented Easton has hit the ground running.

Tahoe Youth & Family Services was awarded a Federal Drug Free Communities grant, bringing in $125,000 for each of the next five years to help combat drug and alcohol abuse among the youth of South Lake Tahoe. Once the grant was awarded a coordinator needed to be hired. Easton was hired and the Concordia College graduate and her husband packed up and moved from Portland, Oregon.

Easton is leading the coalition's efforts with four major action plans over the next six months.

First on the list is the school suspension policy. Currently, students are suspended from school if caught with drugs or alcohol, which actually sends them home with nothing to do at home but perhaps get in more trouble. The plan is to work with the schools so the students attend an on campus program during the school day or one at an off campus treatment center.

The second project will be this spring's annual Drug Store Project and to aid in it's success.

Drug Take Back Bins in the community will be the Coalition's third focus over the coming months. These have been very successful in the past and in many other cities, so they want to have bins used more often. It has been proven that youth have two major gateways to heavy drug use (such as heroin), one of which is prescription drugs.

Rounding up Easton's 6 month focus is getting the local youth involved. Middle School through Community College students are needed to take part in the Coalition by joining the Youth Advisory Council. "I want to give the youth a voice," said Easton. "They know the issues and I really want to see them take action items and do them."

There are normally 15 to 20 community members at the Coalition's monthly meetings, representing law enforcement, parents, education and other targeted sectors. Easton said they are looking for a member from the District Attorney's office and a local Judge to join the Coalition since those two segments see a lot of the local problems.

"The Coalition is their chance to make a lasting impact in South Lake Tahoe," said Easton about the need to get more of the locals involved. She is trying to get local elected officials more involved as well so their social norms marketing campaigns will work.

Biggest obstacles

There are three obstacles that Easton and the Coalition are finding to having a drug free community.

1) Huge influx of population with tourists and seasonal employees. The dynamics are always changing,
2) No sense of "buy in" in the community, and
3) Cut down on the trend of parents renting vacation homes for their kid's parties.

Drug Free Coalition Meetings

The next meeting of the Coalition will be on Monday, February 10 at the Boys and Girls Club at 3:30 pm. Easton hopes that the group will get so large that they need to find a bigger meeting room. For more information one can contact her at 530-541-2445 or by email at meloday@tahoeyouth.org.