Evidence Based Practices Begin with Assessments and Much More
By: Kathy Waters
The research is clear for changing the behavior of justice involved individuals, however, the research is useless if practitioners do not use and apply the research. Community corrections agencies must allow research and the principles of evidence based practices to drive policy regarding supervising the justice involved individuals under their control. Failing to apply these principles to guide the practice will certainly jeopardize the ability to change behavior as well as failing to provide public safety by reducing recidivism. Community corrections leadership cannot continue to follow the status quo with the standpoint of “this is the way we have always done it.” [Learn More]
Averhealth Webinars
You are invited to join our webinar:
Improving The Outcomes And Supervision Of Justice-Involved Individuals:
Three-Part Series
Presented by Kathy Waters
Part 1: The Importance of Risk and Needs Assessments to Guide Supervision and Improve Outcomes
If you have already registered for part 1, you do not need to register again. You can use the same invitation to join parts 2 and 3.
Description: Evidence-Based Practices have been the goal of community corrections organizations for the last 20 years, and yet the actual implementation of key EBP practices with fidelity has been hard to achieve. The following webinars will discuss areas of importance with assessments, case plans, and supervision strategies to include treatment and other cognitive programming and the additional learnings of the latest research.
About Kathy Waters
Kathy Waters has over 37 years of criminal justice experience. She has served a Probation and Parole Officer, Training Coordinator of CLEET (The Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training), District Supervisor of Probation and Parole, District V, in Enid, Deputy Director of Offender Services, Deputy Director of Probation and Parole/Community Corrections, and Division Director of the Adult Probation Services Division for the Administrative Office of the Courts, Arizona Supreme Court. Ms. Waters has led the initiative of Evidence-Based Practices in Probation and Pretrial in the state as outlined in the Supreme Court’s Strategic Agendas with outstanding and promising results.
Drug Trends — Vapes
Officer Jermaine Galloway, better known as "The Tall Cop," will be an ongoing featured contributor to the Averhealth Digest on drug trends — providing you with highlights of street drug trends your clients may be using. If you are testing for the same drugs day after day, you are probably missing the drugs being used! Learn how to stay current on the most recent drug trends and how your drug testing program plays an integral role in your clients' recovery process. This month, Officer Galloway discusses vape pens.
Vape pens are one of the most rapidly evolving drug trends in the United States and around the world. Vapes are sweeping the country, but what we are quickly finding, is that a vape pen can contain much more than just nicotine. This is the main highlight in this article today.
We will review vapes for cannabis (THC and CBD), nicotine vapes and the items inside of the vapes. First, there are no absolutes when referring to vape pens or e-cigarettes. There are vapes that work for nicotine, flavored oils without nicotine, cannabis THC and CBD, and even synthetic drugs. When you see someone vaping, there is a real chance you don’t know what they are really vaping. This is also known as “High in Plain Sight.”
The majority of the vape pens contain the product, that you assume is inside, nicotine. With that being said, we are locating a laundry list of other drugs and items inside of vapes.
Recently, I wrote an article highlighting marijuana concentrates aka dabs, wax, oils and shatter. Marijuana concentrates and vape pens are the perfect combination. Cannabis concentrates come in oil, wax or crystal form, and the current version of vape pens can work for all three. An outsider can’t simply look at someone smoking from a vape pen and know what is inside. That is virtually impossible.
So, how can you figure out what someone is actually smoking? First, we need to understand these pens a little better. The baseline when dealing with vape pens is there are NO ABSOLUTES. Many of the pens that you see that are being used for nicotine look similar to some of the pens in the drug world and vice / versa. Also, the vape pen market is flooded and is very hard to keep up with. For example, I do frequent community scans all across the US and Canada. During these scans I see various forms of vapes that look slightly different, are different sizes, work for different products and vary in price points from $5-$400. Although a common price point for a popular cannabis vape is around $15-$45.
Over the last few years, vape pens for various drug use have continued to gain in popularity. As mentioned earlier these pens can look like nicotine-based pens. Since they are new, colorful, small and can be very discrete, with the latter being a large selling point to these various pens, I expect popularity will continue to rise.
Through my own personal experience as a former police officer, or from the over 600,000 class attendees I have trained, here is what we seem to be coming across the most as far as vapes (with non-nicotine substances) on our streets: dry herbal cannabis, cannabis wax THC and CBD, cannabis oil and other oil forms of synthetic drugs.
Basically, we are still in the very early stages of the vape pen movement and I expect to see these trends continue to rapidly evolve. With that being said, vape pens are hard to identify, offer a new way of use, are VERY discrete, produce less of an odor and therefore can make some means of drug use easier and more mobile.
Trainer Info
Tall Cop Says Stop is a national & international trainer who has trained over 500,000 people. Learn more: www.tallcopsaysstop.com
Industry News
Study: Chatbots Could Help People With Substance Use Disorder Avoid Relapse
A digital chatbot could be one way to help individuals with substance abuse disorder, according to a new study published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
The study, which was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, found that individuals with SUD using the chatbot Woebot significantly reduced their substance use occasions more than individuals on the waitlist, who did not receive the intervention. The bulk of participants in the test group also said that they would recommend the intervention. [Learn More]
One Woman's Inspiring Story of Recovery
When I was 20, I was in a terrible car accident.
My friends and I were trapped inside the smoldering remains of the car for hours while the first responders cut away the mangled steel to free us from the wreckage. After the paramedics pulled me to safety, they drove me to the hospital where I had emergency surgery to repair a severe scalp injury. Over the next year I would have two more surgeries. The scars soon faded, but the trauma didn’t.
Over time, I became someone who was constantly afraid something horrible was about to happen, and I blamed myself for not being able to cope. I didn’t know until years later that I was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). And by then, I was using alcohol and oxycodone, prescribed after back surgery, to deal with the pain I carried with me. [Learn More]
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