We want (kids) to be allies and be active, and be advocates for one another.”

Joan Warren, Portsmouth Prevention Coalition

Schools receive $125K for substance abuse prevention

The Portsmouth School Department has received $125,000 in federal funds for substance use prevention strategies amid the worsening nationwide drug abuse crisis.

The district joined the towns of Lincoln and Warren in receiving a total of $375,000 from the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s Drug-Free Communities Support Program.

“These grants will help prevent substance abuse and make our communities safer. By supporting coalitions among families, schools, non-profits, law enforcement, and businesses, these Drug-Free Communities grants will help educate young people about the dangers and consequences of substance abuse,” said U.S. Sen. Jack Reed.

“Far too many Rhode Island families have lost a loved one to addiction,” said U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who has helped lead the charge in Congress to fight the opioid addiction crisis for years and co-authored the landmark bipartisan Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act. “Prevention has an important role to play in curbing this crisis, which worsened significantly over the course of the pandemic.”

Added Congressmen Jim Langevin, “As our nation emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, drug overdoses are tragically skyrocketing, and far too many Americans are struggling with substance abuse issues,” said Congressman Langevin.

Congressman David Cicilline said addiction is a terrible disease that impacts families all across Rhode Island. “These federal grants will help stem the tide of this disease and help prevent even more families from losing loved ones,” he said.

The Drug-Free Communities Program is designed to support communities as they mobilize individuals and organizations to prevent youth substance use. Drug-Free Communities-funded coalitions have made significant declines in prevalence of youth use of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and the misuse of prescription drugs.

More than 93,000 Americans died from drug overdoses last year, up nearly 30 percent from 2019. According to Rhode Island Department of Health data, 384 Rhode Islanders died of accidental drug overdoses in 2020.

PORTSMOUTH — Joan Warren is well aware of the challenge she faces.

The new coordinator of the Portsmouth Prevention Coalition (PPC) knows firsthand how hard it is to convince a high-schooler not to drink or do drugs. 

“I started drinking in high school, and I don’t wish that on anyone,” said the 57-year-old Barrington resident, who was hired June 21 and works out of the Leonard Brown House at Glen Farm. “It’s all about making good decisions, and I didn’t make good decisions. My brain was still developing. That’s the biggest challenge, and I hope we can meet that challenge — even if we can get through to some kids, and have them be role models. We really want kids to take ownership of prevention.” 

Acknowledging she has big shoes to fill — “The Coalition’s predecessors have done amazing things,” Ms. Warren said — the first thing she wants to do is get the PPC back on track after much of its work was derailed by COVID-19.

“I just want to ramp it up again, and go to as many events as possible so that people see our logo and know what the Portsmouth Prevention Coalition is,” she said. “Anybody can attend our meetings, which are held the second Wednesday of the month (from 8:30-10:30 a.m. at the Brown House).”

Raised in Barrington, Ms. Warren is a graduate of Rhode Island College and has two children (John, 21, and Catherine, 18) with her husband, Peter. She has a journalism background and starting writing for East Bay Newspapers in 1998. (Ms. Warren still writes the occasional freelance article for The Barrington Times.) She’s been involved in many capacities in the Barrington public schools, as well as on the town’s Board of Canvassers and Preservation Society.

“I’ve very involved in my community, so I know how small town government works,” she said.

Worked for Steppingstone

Before taking the job with PPC, she worked the previous three years at Steppingstone Inc., a behavioral health and homeless services agency out of Fall River.

“I was marketing coordinator, but my focus was at the Peer2Peer Recovery Support Center,” Ms. Warren said. “There, I learned so much about the peer model of recovery, and how recovery can come in so many different forms. There’s no wrong door to recovery.”

Ms. Warren said she’s in long-term recovery herself. “It had been about a year before I started the job at Steppingstone that I decided to stop drinking. I can tell you it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life,” she said.

A certified recovery coach in Massachusetts, Ms. Warren said her job at Steppingstone was under a three-year grant that was expiring Sept. 30, so she started looking elsewhere and found out about the opening in Portsmouth,. 

“I believe I have all the tools needed to be productive and help the Town of Portsmouth with preventive measures. This is a great community, like Barrington. Growing up in Barrington, I certainly find similar demographics.”

Unfortunately, one of those similarities is substance abuse, a problem shared by many communities, 

“Growing up in Barrington, I started drinking in high school. It was 40 years ago, mind you, but that was what the culture was at the time, and to be honest with you, it hasn’t changed at all,” Ms. Warren said, adding it almost seems there’s a stigma against young people who don’t choose to dabble in alcohol or drugs. “It’s considered a right of passage. It’s peer pressure, it’s the media.” 

She fell victim herself. “My mother always said, ‘You have to do everything in moderation.’ And I would go to Second Beach and we practically lived there. I would have blisters from sun poisoning.’ I’d say, ‘What do you know? Moderation is boring.’ I look back, and my mother was a genius. If I had listened to her, my life would have been so different,” she said.

More dangerous choices

Today, kids have even more substances with which they can experiment, and they’re easily accessible. Recently, she learned about Delta-8, a cannabis compound that’s popular due to its similarity to Delta-9 THC, the main compound in cannabis that gets you high.

“It’s like weed-light,” she said. “You can get it at a convenience store. It’s like synthetic weed. It gets you high, maybe not to the same level as regular weed, but you can just take twice as much. All you have to be is 18 to get it. That’s scary. Kids can get their hands on anything these days. It’s so easy to get a fake ID on the internet, even a medical marijuana card.”

And it’s only a matter of time, she believes, before recreational marijuana — already legal in Massachusetts and Connecticut — is approved in Rhode Island.

“I think for the State of Rhode Island, they almost have to (approve it) because it’s right on our borders, but I don’t agree with it. The State of Rhode Island is always looking to generate revenue, and this will be a big revenue-generator,” said Ms. Warren, who believes the revenue should go toward prevention and people who need recovery services.

Making the rounds

For now, Ms. Warren is busy meeting all the stakeholders and other people she’ll be working with. “We are hoping to get guest speakers into the high school and the middle school this year. We’re also going to be working very closely with the new student assistance counselor (at the high school). You need somebody that the kids can relate to,” she said.

She also works closely with the regional Newport County Prevention Coalition, which meets right upstairs from her. During a chat with a reporter, Ray Davis, assistant director of the regional group and the former PPC coordinator, came down to say hello to Ms. Warren. Both said they are looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead in steering local youth in the right direction.

“We don’t want to tell them what to do,” Ms. Warren said. “We want them to be allies and be active, and be advocates for one another.”